Hey Everyone…so the rest of our week at clinic was pretty much the same we saw more sick babies whose mothers were ages 12-17 years. One interesting case we had was a young girl who was 15 years old, and this was her 5th child!!!! It was a really sad situation because she had her first child at age 10 because she was raped by her father. Her next to children were incest with her father as well…the last two she has had have been with a different partner. But still…5 kids and she is only 15 years old!! L Horrible! The doctor said that she has been physiologically abused and she does not know right from wrong, or how to take care of herself or her children. Another young girl we saw was 17 and has two children under the age of 2. However, on the positive side on Thursday in clinic we saw a father bring in his 11 month old daughter alone because his partner (they were in a relationship but not married yet). It is very odd to see the fathers come with the mothers to their child's visit; usually only the mother and sometimes the grandmothers come. However, you could tell this man was well-adjusted to having a child and that he cared about his partner and his child! It was awesome to see that some men do care here!! In all of the visits we saw (~50) kids only 3 fathers came. And most (2/3) of the girls who did come said that the father is not helping with the child, and not supporting them nor the child.

Next week we are going to a clinic that is father out of the city and is a poorer clinic therefore I'm hoping that I will get to see and do more!

We went to Mindo this weekend!!! It was awesome! JWe were able to do a lot we went on a zip-line adventure! There were 10 different cables that we did that were 300-500 meters long, we would do one, and then walk a little bit to the next and so on. They were all above the cloud forest which was SO pretty!! It was amazing! We also went to an orchedia (orchid/flower) farm where we got to see many different types and kinds of flowers, examine, and smell them! That night was interesting because the hostel we stayed in was cheap but let's just say we know why now…we didn't sleep at all. So there was a karaoke bar right down the street and at 11 pm they decided to have a party in the street and set speakers up in the street with a loud microphone so the whole town can hear them screaming and yelling as well as the base! The party didn't stop until about 3:00 am and then to our luck construction started at 5:00am. So we got a whole 2 hours of sleep! J lol but anywho I guess that is part of the experience! Not like we have gotten much sleep on any of our weekend trips anyway due to music…we decided we should stop trying to sleep and instead just go enjoy their fun! We did some…but we opted for trying to sleep this weekend, although it didn't work. So Julie and I ended up getting up (if you can call it that!) around 8:30 and heading out to go to the Mariposaria (Butterfly farm), Peter chose to stay in and sleep some. We were told it was only about a 3 km or 1.5 mile walk to the mariposaria so we decided to walk. We were in for a treat. We walked for about an hour and still had not found the mariposaria and figured it had to be around there somewhere; finally we saw a sign that we thought said !Here 1km ahead! So we kept walking…finally we got to the end of the road, and I asked an old man where it was, and he said we passed it a ways back and that we had to go back the way we came and it was about 1km back the other direction where the sign that says !Here 1km ahead! that is where it is at! Oh man! Haha so we turned around and headed back…finally after back an hour and 45 minutes of walking we finally found it!! Woo Hoo!! It was worth while though. We got to see awesome butterflies and we could but bananas on our fingers and get the butterflies to hand on our hands because they were eating so we could take some cool pictures! They had all different kinds and colors of butterflies. My favorites were these bright blue ones and then these other ones which looked like owls and also looked like a snakes head on the end of their wings; they blend in with nature so not to get eaten or disturbed! It was amazing! We also got to see the larva and how a butterfly transforms and grows, while we were there we also witnessed a butterfly that was just born and still in his mold, his wings hadn't opened yet! It was really neat! After that Julie and I took a taxi back to the center of the city because we needed to be back in 20 minutes to start our Horseback riding trip!Peter, Julie, and I went horseback riding for an hour around the area up into the cloud forest along trails J it was fun since I haven't been on a horse in forever. I asked our leader if I was able to run my horse and he said yes, but they were so trained that it was really hard. I got him to trot and canter for a bit but couldn't get him to run. The leader tried to get his to run with me but we still had no luck…unfortunately… I wish! None the less it was still a great time and we got to see some awesome scenery and views of the cloud forest! However my butt is taking the repercussions now! It is very sore!!! That ended our trip and Mindo and we caught a bus back to Quito in the afternoon on Sunday!

Hope all is well!

Love, Britt