Portoviejo Day 4

So you may be wondering why day 4 is 2 days late.
It is because at the end of day 4 David was in the hospital with food poisoning.
I suppose no visit to South America is complete without it.

The day started out great. Yolanda wanted David to get a chance to see some of the province.
So instead of going to the clinic he toured around a little bit with us.
First we went to visit a man named Pastor who became blind 9 years ago. He was only 30 years old. Prior to his blindness he didn't have much of a job. Once he became blind the foundation worked with him teaching him basic business skill, gave him a small loan to start a business, and continue to support him along with his family and friends. He had a successful business in his home along with a small futbol field along side his home which draws people there and then after their game they buy from his store. He had a very nice home, a wife who adored him, and a mother who adored him even more. It was awesome to see someone being so successful in his circumstance. The volunteers told me that the key to a blind person being successful in their program is the support of a spouse. It was so neat to see how much Pastor's wife loved and adored him.

Drove a long the coast. Saw a mule. Stopped and had a ride.

Next we visited a camaroneras--a shrimp farm. It was owned by Magdalena, one of Yolanda's friends. After we got a lesson on how a shrimp farm works and ate some fresh ceviche de camarones.

Continued along the coast and visited probably the poorest school we have seen so far--dirt floors, open classrooms with only 3 walls. There we went to visit a 10 year old girl named Evelyn who is blind. We got to see how she writes and reads braile. She didn't have a braile machine so did it all using a special metal tool. It was amazing to see how quickly she could write. I was impressed with what level of math they were doing.

Then we went to visit a private school funded by a man that is a good friend of Yolanda's. It is a montesorrie type school. It was beautiful. They had built one of their cabana out of old soda bottles. We visited the 4 year old class. They sang for us and did some recitations with hand motions and enthusiasm--super cute.

Last we visited the beach and went to eat more camorones at a little restaurant on the beach.
Then we had a long, hot ride home. I went back to the hotel to rest. David went back to the clinic to do some lasering. Then I got the call from Yolanda that David was sick and she had just dropped him at the hospital. She came to pick me up. Lots of puke, lots of diarrhea, lots of visitors (a latino thing), Yolanda even left one of her nurses to stay with us for the night. By the next morning he was better but it was a rough 12 hours. The good thing was that as fast as it came it left.

We thought it was all the camarones that he had eaten but then we came to find out that all the people we had eaten dinner with the night before were also sick. Yolanda, her son, and I were the only people out about 12 of us who did not get sick. Like I said the trip would not have been complete without a little or a lot of diarrhea.