Hey everyone!So this is my last week in Chone and we are having a good time and getting to see quite a bit again! This past weekend Julie and I went to Montaninta.We had a great time it is defiantly a party town at night but is known for its surfing. We took surf lessons for 2 and a half hours, and then got to keep the boards for an extra 2 hours to practice and it only cost $15! And the bonus was that our lessons were in English! We had a lady who was originally from California and has lived and surfed out here for the past 5 months teach us, she was really good and it helped that they were in English. Although my Spanish is improving and I am getting really good, having lessons in English is always nice! J We ate at some really cool restaurants and did some shopping and just hung out…still no sun here! I'm not sure what that is all about…it was warm but we haven't really had any sunny and hot days in Ecuador since I have been here….and I thought being on the equator it would be really hot and sunny…guess I was wrong. Our bus ride took about 6 hours to get there, and about 7 hours to get back, quite long! Back in Chone: On Monday we got to see surgeries again! We saw an older man who had a tumor under his left arm above his rib cage. There was a large bulge that was sticking out and they went in to remove it, and we got to see the whole process and take lots of really cool pictures. Then the second surgery that we saw was a little boy, 12 years old who had an appendectomy!! This was really cool for me to see since I had mine taken out! I was really interested in how the surgery takes place, and how it might differ here from the US. His scare ended up looking just like mine, even though he didn't have any complications! I was talking to the doctor and they do not have the technology yet to go in and remove it all with just a small instrument, they do not have the money nor the resources. He says the still have to operate by hand, and therefore the patients here have larger scares. The surgery was relatively fast and only took about an hour to take out his appendix. One thing that I found to be very different here is for almost all of the surgeries the patients are only put under local anesthetic. They are never fully ¨under;¨ whereas for my surgery I was completely out, here I would only have been put under a local. Today, we were in Pediatrics with the doctor. We saw a little boy who fell off of a donkey (Burro en Spanish) and then the donkey bit his upper left leg. He was missing a large chunk of his leg and part of his bone. It was really sad. The little boy did not have a mother, and his father did not want to pay to have his son transported to Quito or Quialyaquial where the medical care is much better and where he needs to go. This happened on Saturday and he was not brought to the hospital until Monday night. Part of his leg was starting to die -the skin and bone. However, finally the father decided to allow them to transport his son to Quito in hopes to save his leg! We saw a little girl who was 2 years old who was riding on the back of a motorcycle without shoes and went to step off and stepped on the back part where it is really hot and got 2nd degree burns on the bottoms of both of her feet! It was really sadL! They are treating her with antibiotics and cleaning the wounds right now. Another boy we saw was also 12 years old and he was working, doing manual labor with a chainsaw, and cut off his big toe on his left foot and part of his heel. He has been in the hospital for almost 2 weeks now because he keeps getting infections in his wounds. They amputated the toe, but were able to reconstruct most of his heel. Right now he is in stable condition and is healing! Those are the most severe cases they have in the Pediatric Unit right now; otherwise most little kids have Respiratory infections, Diarrhea and dehydration, or gastrointestinal problems. After doing rounds our doctor asked if we wanted to do a medical history on the boy who had his appendix out who is recovery in the pediatric unit. Between the 3 of us we were supposed to ask the grandmother questions about her grandson and his symptoms and life history-pretty much. We agreed. However, my Spanish is the best out of the 3 of us and I was suckered in to asking all of the questions and pretty much took the history by myself, however I survived and the doctor said I did a great job!! WOO HOO!! LOL I am improving! After this we went down and did clinic with her where we saw 8 patients and each got to do medical exams on 2 patients.It is getting easier, the kids today we really grumpy though and screamed the whole time…not as fun when they scream, yell, and cry! :/ I´m not sure what we will be doing the rest of the week, but am hoping to get to see more as it is our last week here! We are leaving on Friday to go to Canoa. Canoa is another surfing town which is only an hour away from Chone and we are going to be there Friday and Saturday and then come back to Chone Saturday night. Sunday morning we leave to head back for Quito!I hope all is well back home!Love and miss you!Britt