A safe arrival, and the beginning of the adventures

Buenos tardes, todos!

I just got done with my second day at work here in Ecuador. Things are going very well thus far. I arrived Friday night with all my luggage, and then I took a bus down to Shell (about 5 hours). The drive through the mountains was beautiful. Shell is still in the mountains (3000 ft), but it is not nearly as high as Quito (9000 ft). We’re more surrounded by mountains instead of being way up in them. The picture of the sunset is from right outside my house.

I’m living with an Ecuadorian family, the Hidalgos, who have a thirteen-year-old son. Thus far they’ve been quite forgiving with my Spanish. Generally, as long as they speak slowly enough I get what they’re saying. I’m still having trouble conjugating my verbs correctly, but they don’t seem to mind too much. At least, they haven’t laughed at me yet. I’m certainly having many opportunities to practice my Spanish and also listen to it.

Today I finished my second day at the hospital. I’m not completely settled in to a job yet, but it looks like I’ll be helping out with general nursing responsibilities when I arrive, and then I’ll be helping out the residents and interns in the E.R. I’ll also be shadowing some of the docs on rounds and possibly with other things when interesting cases arrive.

Hope everything is going well with everyone. I’ll be back later with more stories and pictures!

Kevin