Beach Bummin

Well, haven't blogged in a while. That's almost becoming routine, but this time I had a reason! I was being a beach bum. Now, truth be told I did nothing this past week besides play the boardgame Risk, sit on a towel in the sun, sit in an loungechair in the sun, lie in a hammock in the sun, play chess, read various books, and spoke a lot of Spanish. It was perfect. I mean, after I was there for a week, I asked myself why would I not want this life?

I helped a man with his ear problem while I was there. I obviously was just helping, I didn't expect anything in return. But nonetheless, how did he repay me? He brought me two lobsters he had just caught in the ocean. He had a bucket full of them. Gave me two. So I had lobster for breakfast for free. I had been paying five dollars a night for my beach side cabana, and probably five dollars a day for good food (shrimp and stuff) and I thought, why not move down here? I mean how crazy must I be to not live down here? Anyhow, the thought is still there. Who knows? Maybe I'll just move to Gulf Shores and live down there and still be a beach bum. Work eight hours a day and fish and eat shrimp the other sixteen hours a day. I could have a guest house for anyone wanting to come stay a week, month, or year.

Anyway, so beach bumming is a great life. I only did it for a week, but I caught a good glimpse of it by the owners of our hostal. As much as I want to say they run a good business and work hard (which they do, I highly recommend them) really they are just bumming it on the beach at heart. I mean this guy Franz, between playing risk with his customers or chess or monopoly, just reads and surfs. It's so amazing. He built his hostal, (which is incredibly nice, six bedrooms with private baths and a few rooms with dorms with shared baths with his house on the third floor) on a half acre of absolutely beachfront property (like the floor of the common ground of this place is sand) for around sixty thousand dollars. Hell, I'll be double that in debt in a year. How easy would it be to just do that? And enjoy life and the beach...

Anyway, I wasn't really planning on blogging on beach bumming but it sort of happened. Well I'm headed back stateside real soon. To tell the truth, I'm really excited because I miss everyone over there. I'm sure I'll be equally excited to return to South America in January. So see yall real soon!!!

Blog Points:
1. I was asking someone how to say kleats the other day. Like for your feet. Because, how cool is this? they call them tacos in Venezuela. Well they told me zapatos de futbol. I was like, yeah I know they are for soccer, but what do they call them, for like other sports. Then it dawned on me. They don't play baseball or football here. Only soccer requires kleats, so the name works. Amazing

2. Merrill met this girl on the way to the beach. She was nothing more than loco for him. So we get off this bus, he tells her he will call her and not five minutes later she is calling him. Merrill, who is making strides with his Spanish, was now having a conversation over the phone. Meanwhile we are on a boat taxi crossing this bay. Now Spanish over the phone is a lot harder than Spanish in person. I know this sounds silly, but it's the truth. Well she asks him how the boat ride is going, and he says, "Pues, estamos en el barco, y el barco esta sobre el agua." He was just trying to make coherent sentences, and was doing a good job. Turns out he said, well, we're on the boat, and the boat is on the water. HA! Real Don Juan right? We got a good laugh out of that.

3. Franz applied for a land-line for a phone to his hostal. But there are only so many lines coming into the small beach town of Canoa. So when do you ask did he actually apply for that land line? A week? A MONTH? Nope. Apparently land lines here are like tickets to the Master's. People have to die to get them. He applied two years ago for his land line!!!

4. So, I saw a truck the other day. It was a chevy. If you couldn't tell from that backwards bowtie on the tailgate, you could tell from any of the dozen chevy stickers posted on it. I mean this guy would probably throw up on himself if he ever got in a Ford. One of those guys. Anyhow, one sticker kinda stuck out. I don't think he really understood it's significance. But sure enough on the back of his truck he had a Calvin sticker peeing on a chevrolet symbol. S.A. never disappoints.

Al Roker

So Al Roker is a good guy. How might you ask do I know this? Well because I met him about three hours ago. NBC is doing this big special from all around the world. Turns out they are broadcasting from a rain forest where I spent this past weekend. My cousin Merrill and I are going to hang around one more day in hopes to get on the Today Show tomorrow. So if you read this early tomorrow morning or tonite, make sure to watch the NBC Today Show between 9 and 10 in the morning!!!

chao
stewart

An Average Day

So yall like the pictures above? If you do, head to My Pictures link on the right. It´s under Useful Links. Two of those were taken not five minutes from where I live and work. Two were taken in Baños, Ecuador. The city, not the bathroom.

So I don´t have much to talk about, hence the reason I haven´t blogged this week. But then I realized the reason for that is that I´m sort of getting accustomed to living down here. My life now is routine, which is weird, but by no means bad. So I figured I´d just tell yall about my normal day, followed of course by blog points. I´ve been teaching now for three weeks and will continue for two more weeks before I come home to work and celebrate the holidays with everyone!

Anyway, my normal day is waking up in the morning and taking breakfast with the Ecuatorian family I´m living with. It´s pretty great, normally some fresh bread, coffee, fruit, juice, and some form of egg. Nothing excessive, but a great way to start the day. Then I help with religion classes from 8-11:00. In those classes, I´m a teacher´s aid. From 11:00-12:00 I have my own class, which is soooooooooo much better. I love doing what I wish and seeing these kids´ knowledge grow. From 12 to 1:30 I have a break where I either study and eat out or return to the house and eat again with my family. Then I tutor everday from 1:30 to 4:00. This is easily my favorite part of the day. I work with four different students all of which need different instruction. This is where I feel like I´m contributing. I try to teach practical stuff as well as life lessons. I will only be with these kids for five weeks, so I figure life lessons will probably go a longer way than sums and subtractions. I try to teach them why it´s important to learn how to read, why it´s important to know how to add, and then we read books and do sums. Then from 4-7 I do my own studying, Spanish and Pediatrics, head back to the house and have a good meal. I get to read for an hour or two before I hit the sack. I hope that blog wasn´t dry, but I figured I´d share what I´m doing. I know my mom will enjoy it at least.

Blog Points:
1. So buses are terribly common here! I mean they are everywhere, but unlike buses in the states, they don´t have bathrooms. So according to what I saw the other day, it´s totally cool to open the window and let your four year old pee in the wind when they need to go. Don´t worry about the open windows down bus!!!

2. The other day I heard this funky song, it was like a clubbing song with a good rythym. Well sometimes in songs like these you may expect to hear the electronic voice in the background say something to the effect of, oh yeah, or oh baby, or yeah yeah yeah, or go. You know what I´m talking about. Well this song had GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL mixed in it a hundred times. Ruined the song.

3. Saw a guy walking down a crowded sidewalk the other day. Was a bit surprised that he was leading five geese in front of him! Was more surprised that no one else on the sidewalk found this odd!

4. Loved this kid...Remember LA Lights? If you never had them, you probably dreamed of winning them on Double Dare or Finders Keepers. Well for those that don´t know them, everytime a kid steps the heel lights up. Pretty cool. Well Latin America took this to an entirely new level. This kid was wearing LA Squeaks! No joke, everytime he took a step, the shoes had a speaker that let out this loud squeak! Poor parents...

5. I passed by this store that was incredibly crowded. Whenever there´s a crowd I generally look to see what odd thing is going on. I wasn´t dissappointed this time either. Turns out it was a clothes store, and they were having a big sale. What kind of sale you might ask? A before Christmas sale? A soon to be after Thankgiving sale? No no, it was an ¨Invierno Venta¨ A Winter Sale!!! Give me a break! You´re on the Equator! What the hell? :)

One last thing. I´m putting out feelers for anyone who is willing to teach me how to ride a motorcycle over Christmas break. If you know how and have a bike, please be in touch.

Latinas, Latinas, Latinas!

So, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t flirted, danced, and kissed Latinas while I’ve been down here. For those that know me, yall probably think that every time I’ve talked to a Latina I’ve probably flirted with her. That may or may not be true, but that aside, I had my first “date” this past Sunday, and a few funny things happened, enough funny things to blog about it at least.

First she tells me that we should go to “el jardin”. I’m like, sure, sounds good to me. It sounds good to me because el jardin translates to “the garden”. I have no idea what the el jardin is, but it’s gotta be a bit romantic right? After all it’s called the garden. So I catch a bus there, knowing what street it’s on. I was actually a bit surprised because on the front of the bus it also said “el jardin.” So I ask someone on the bus if they know where “el jardin” is located, and if they could tell me when we arrive there so I could hop off the bus. He agrees, and five minutes later points to the garden. I look out the window and see a supermall as big as any in Birmingham!!!

So I meet her at the entrance, and we stroll all through the garden (mall) just like we were in eighth grade. I wish I had told the bus driver, “Thanks mom, could you pick me up in three hours a couple hundred yards down the street?” Sure enough we pass by a Sunglasses Hut and an Abercrombie and Fitch. If only I had fully endorsed this and went and tried on sunglasses. Fortunately we saw a Baskin Robbins, which was awesome since they are fading out rapidly in America. I got a mint chocolate chip cone just like when I was eight years old. It was delicious. What was weird about the Baskin Robbins? She paid without me knowing.

So now we’ve trolled through a mall, and she’s paid for our ice cream.

I decide that we should go to the park across the street. She agrees quickly, so I imagine she doesn’t want to troll the mall either. We get there and there is this magician doing a show for a bunch of kids and parents. There’s probably a hundred people all laughing when we approach. As soon as I show up the magician stops his show and gets a free joke out of me. He says, “Hablas Spanish?” That’s the equivalent of saying, “Do you speak Espanol?” I say of course and so then in Spanish in front of everyone he asks me where I’m from. I say the United States, and he then grabs his hat walks over to me and then says, well then I’m charging you three dollars for admission. Everyone laughed including me. It was in good humor. (I didn’t pay.)

So now I’ve trolled the mall, had a girl pay for my ice cream, and had over a hundred people laugh at me.

After we watch for several minutes, she decides that we should go sit down in the shade under a tree. Sounds good to me, I mean hell some people pay six dollars an hour for conversational Spanish. I’ll get get a good couple hours of conversational Spanish for free, and she’ll throw in free Baskin Robbins. Anyway, we sit down for about ten seconds when a soccer ball drills her in the side. I’m talking Valderrama from the nineties might not have been able to kick a ball this hard. I realize quickly that no one is sitting in this shade because it is directly behind the make shift goal that these six guys had setup to play soccer.

So now I have trolled through a mall, had a girl pay for my ice cream, been laughed at by 100+ people, and now have a date on the verge of tears from pain.

Don’t get me wrong, she must have been thinking “Now I’ve had to walk through a mall with this guy, buy his ice cream, had a hundred people laugh at us, and now I get hit by a soccer ball!”

Well she must not have been too discouraged by everything because she wants to go snuggle up under a different tree. I obviously don’t discourage the idea, but do find it odd because within probably a thirty-meter radius, there are probably ten or twelve couples snuggling under ten or twelve different trees. This park was huge. On one sign I saw a water area, a bmx bike area, a basketball area, a soccer area, but funny that I didn’t notice the “public display of affection” area. I guess it doesn’t translate.

Anyway, after a couple of hours she has to go back to where she’s from. (She’s catching a bus to Guayquil later that afternoon.) So we wait for her bus to take her to her other bus. When we see it in the distance she looks me in the eyes and says, “Estas bien conmigo?” Literally translates to “Are you fine with me?” I mean in the land of ambiguous questions, this has to be the Reina!!! You know? I mean what the hell? She’s about to hop on her bus, I don’t have time for her to explain what that means, so I say Si. What else can I say? I mean I’m caught between an espada (sword) and a pared (wall). If you think about it, this question could mean anything.

So in the end, I trolled a mall, had a girl buy me my ice cream, got laughed at by 100+ people, and could possibly be “dating” this girl that I’ll probably only see one more time in my life without knowing it.

With all that said, it was a great time, and she’s a good girl.

A couple of things for those still reading. I’m not going to add blog points. I have a few saved up, but I’ll just add them next time. I want to start writing more so you’ll have them in a few days.

Lastly, I need to shout out to a couple of blogs. First, my friend Rob McDonald’s blog. I’m not sure how I didn’t post the link to his blog on my website yet. He was a big inspiration why I’m blogging. Check out his sight, it’s on the right side. Second, to Jason Wilson. His blog is much more well written than mine, and I’m sure he’s going to have a heyday after he reads this. Lastly, my cousin Merrill is blogging. Check it out at merrillstewart.blogspot.com. He lives with me in Ecuador obviously. (How typical, the only two Alabamians in Ecuador, and they are cousins living together, right?)

Oh I’ve also posted more pics. So go to the link above and to the right to see them. They are actually beautiful!!!

El Centro de Muchacho Trabajador

Wow! It’s been a while. Okay, so as has been my life for the past two months, things continue to change. I finished my training at the Red Cross, and at the end they give us all a test that we have to make an 80% on. By “all” I mean about 22 Ecuadorians and 1 gringo (me). I look at the test, thinking and hoping it would be multiple choice, and see nothing but questions and lines. Lots of lines. Turns out every question had to be answered with three to four sentences, and there were like twenty questions!!! So needless to say, I was the ADHD kid who stayed much later finishing the exam than everyone else. I passed, and then went to get my schedule for volunteering, and it turns out I could only work like 5 to 10 hours a week at the Red Cross. Before I did the training they told me I could work a full schedule there after training. I’m not sure why all that happened but it did, and so I changed jobs.

So since last Monday morning, I’ve been a schoolteacher/tutor. Turns out that a place close to my house needs volunteers for teaching street kids (kids that have to work to bring in money for their family generally selling candy or polishing shoes). I told them I’d be in Quito for five more weeks, and they said that would be great. Everything is in Spanish and so difficult! Not because of the Spanish, but because teaching has to be the hardest job on the planet. Really, we should all call our old teachers and thank them. Anyway, I have a class in the mornings on Tuesday/Thursday/Friday, I help with classes in the mornings on Monday/Wednesday, but my favorite part is the tutoring every afternoon. I work with a teacher for a class of about six. Turns out these six are the “special” class. Special meaning they’ve never had education. They range from 9 to 12 years in age. Let me give you an example of what I taught yesterday. This one child Derio, age 12, can add very well. I was quite impressed, seeing how I’m teaching the rest to add. So I try to teach him to add bigger numbers like 167 + 573. I find out he can add them after I teach him to carry tens and all, but he can’t name them. So then I tell him to write the numbers from 0 to 100 in order and he can’t do it. This kid has learned to add because he has been on the street selling candy, but no one taught him how to count. It was shocking. I mean how foreign must addition be if you don’t know that the numbers go in order. Talk about doing blindly what you’re told. Anyway, it’s been great. I’m mainly teaching reading, writing, addition and subtraction. I have to throw this plug in, my hat is off to my sister who teaches special education and somehow loves it. I mean I enjoy what I’m doing, but I know there is no way I would have the patience to do this full time. Not a chance. I always realized how smart teachers had to be, in the sense of being able to see where all their students were, and somehow getting them all to the same level. But I never realized until now how enthusiastic and patient teachers have to be. God Bless them.

Blog Points:

1. I went to a crazy Latino rock concert the other night. There were mosh pits with people swinging, but the best part was the drummer, who was the same drummer from the Tenacious D movie but without horns. He was bald but with a long mullet, sported a Motorhead shirt for five minutes until he took it off, sweet MegaDeath leather pants, and ran and jumped off the stage swinging at his fans during one of the moshes. No joke.
2. So my friend Naomi broke her arm. She was in a village at the time, and there were no doctors, so thankfully this guy saw her and offered to set her arm until she went to the hospital. In retrospect, the doctor said it was a good job. So two questions…what did he use to set the arm? And how much did he charge? Popsicle sticks and $3.
3. The trolley that I use on a daily basis, plays Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer on a daily basis.

Deportivo Quito contra Barcelona

So it's been way too long since I've blogged. I'm sorry about that, especially for those of you who read this blog in hopes to procrastinate working for a little while longer. Anyway, maybe today this will knock off three more minutes of your workday. Also, if you want to knock off more time, I've added more photos. Look at the links to the right and click on the one for my photos.

So the latest updates are that I took my first test in Spanish yesterday. I have to make an eighty percent on the test to be certified to volunteer with the Red Cross. I won't find out if I passed until Tuesday. I also started working with a pediatrician in the mornings here, and apparently I'm supposed to teach an anatomy and physiology class for an hour and half on Monday afternoons for the next eight weeks. Thankfully the class is in English. Needless to say, Life in Ecuador is random.

So I went to a soccer match the other day. TOTAL MAYHEM!!! First, it was Deportive Quito versus Barcelona. Against what you might think, it was between two of the biggest teams in Ecuador (not from Spain). Anyway, there's this kid that lives with our family who bleeds Deportivo Quito, so of course I bought a $5 jersey and went to the game with a few friends. Let me tell you a few things that went down at the match.
1. When we entered it was so crowded that we couldn't see the game. Then we see these folks scaling what turns out to be a wall to watch the game from a ledge. We decide it's a good idea and do it. Turns out we had to enter the girls bathroom climb a ledge there then crawl through a broken "window" (metal bars) to get on the ledge for the game. Could you imagine that happening in Jordan-Hare? Anyway, we had a great view up there.
2. I also saw about four fist fights in the crowd during the game.
3. They sell many more tickets than people can actually watch the game, so at one point during the game we hear this huge BOOM below us, then saw a flood of people enter and push and shove until I thought someone was going to die in the mob. Turns out the people BROKE DOWN A METAL DOOR in order to enter the stadium! Total madness. Thankfully no one got hurt.
4. Finally, towards the end of the game it was pretty cold. I could tell others were cold, but there was really nothing to do about it I thought. Then I looked to my left and saw a big ass fire!!! Turns out the team that was losing was burning all the flags of the winning team. I mean it was in the stands, and it was BIG. I mean probably ten feet by ten feet and five feet high. Which in the middle of the crowded stadium is pretty substantial. I waited for the police or whoever to come put it out, but they didn't. Apparently, it's totally normal to have bonfires out of opponents garments during a game.
Anyway, though the fans are MUCH crazier than at an SEC football game, the game is not nearly as exciting, but it just isn't loud at all. I mean there are fanatics that do some crazy stuff like that guy from South Korea that lit himself on fire, but the atmosphere is not near as loud as Jordan-Hare.

Anyhow, I promise the car ride story from Venezuela soon. I've just been real busy. I've enjoyed yall's comments! Thanks!

Blog Points:
1. Hearing the Talking Heads blasting Psychokiller out of a car was pretty fabulous.
2. My red cross volunteering class ordered lunch to go the other day. So with the lunch came a drink, pineapple juice. Besides being delicious, it was served in a plastic bag.
3. There is a moderately sized store at the corner of my street. It sells bananas. It doesn't sell anything else.
4. My family made burritos the other day. I was pretty amazed, this being the first time I had anything resembling Mexican food since I arrived in South America. So when we sat down, no one knew how to eat them except for Isabela who made them, and even she wasn't too sure. I had to teach a South American family how to eat a burrito. So weird.

Yall check out the pics!

Quito...making Denver feel ashamed

So I’m long overdue for a blog. Especially considering how much has changed in my life. So last I spoke to yall I was getting frisked by the FARC. In reality it wasn’t the FARC, it was really just the Bogota airport security. Nonetheless, they were armed with serious looking automatic rifles, so the rush was still there. Thankfully they didn’t find my box of Cuban cigars. Just kidding. It’s great because you can fly around here having no problems with Cuban cigars. Now returning to America with them should be different.

Anyway, so here are my plans in case you are interested. I have been working at a hostel for room and board this past week. It’s been great because I haven’t had to pay anything, and I have gotten to know the city. I found an excellent apartment that I should be moving into on Sunday. It’s right in the area of town I want to live, next to the Red Cross (which I’ll explain later), cheap, real nice, and the family that runs it is Ecuadorian, so I’ll be spending a lot of time with them. So now, if you want to come to Ecuador, I’ve got a place for you to stay! Anyway, my cousin Merrill is moving down here in a couple of weeks, so we are going to share the apartment. It’s for two.

As far as volunteering my plans have changed. I am going to volunteer with the Red Cross of Ecuador. I think I have learned sufficient Spanish to work with them. I had a 30-minute interview with them, and passed, so I guess I know enough Spanish. I have to go to training this Saturday and Sunday and next Saturday and Sunday. After that, I should be riding in ambulances all over Ecuador. Needless to say, I’m incredibly excited. I’ve been reading this medical book they gave me for the training. It’s like 200 pages. I know all the medicine in the book, but the problem is the Spanish. Trying to read a 200 page technical book in Spanish in less than a week in a half is difficult. But it’s perfect because it is teaching me medical Spanish and that is a major reason I came here. So with that said, Jeff I would be careful. I imagine the points are about to start raining when I’m riding ambulances all across Quito.

That’s enough for now. I don’t want to bore yall, so here are the blog points. By the responses and emails I’ve received, it seems these are everyone’s favorite part of the blog. Oh and next week I’m going to blog about my taxi ride in Venezuela. One of the greatest things that has ever happened to me, so be ready…

Blog Points:
1. I needed to buy a flash drive, so I went to a place in an affluent part of town called the “Center of Commerce”. All these stores were like six feet by six feet. My favorite store was displaying nothing random, only a brand new PlayStation 3, jewelry, cameras, and blenders.
2. I found another store, not in the Center of Commerce, which was real nice and real big. What did it sell? Nothing out of the ordinary either…only refrigerators, washing machines, and sweet ass motorcycles. I think I saw a coupon for a free oil change with the purchase of a Maytag dryer.
3. This guy Christian, who I’ve become friends with, works on the corner selling kabobs cooked on a grill. And believe me they are delicious and only 60 cents. So the other day a lot of people came at once, so he needed to speed up the cooking process to ensure their business. So what did he do? Only pulled out a Vidal-Sassoon hair dryer and started blow-drying them. They were delicious.
4. Lastly, I heard a great song on the radio the other day. I’m curious to know when was the last time you heard this band? Or better yet, when was the last time you thought of them? What band and song? Nothing but the classic Two Princes by The Electric Spin Doctors.

Bogota

Okay, this is just too good a blog to pass up. I cannot type much becuase I do not have much time.

True or False: I am currently blogging in Bogota, Columbia after getting frisked by someone who is probably in the FARC.

Answer: True

The past four hours of my life have been pretty damn hectic. When I arrived in Caracas from Maracaibo, I literally ran from the domestic gate to the international gate. When I got there he told me my flight was closed. The reason I was late was because of the friggin Venezuelan Airline that does not take e-tickets, but somehow sells them. Anyway, I had to plead with the man and tell him that I was a volunteer doctor and that they were waiting on me in Ecuador. (half-true) Anyway, they guy said, well do you have fifty bucks, then I said, that the reason I was late was because your airline took forever getting here, yada yada yada. It was the first time I had to speak heated in Spanish. Anyway, it was awesome. He eventually let me in without having to pay the extra fifty bucks. Then I ran all through the airport and made it to my flight. Anyway, I gotta go now because I think my flight to Quito is about to leave.

BLOG POINT: I just got frisked by the FARC!!!

P.S. The blog is dedicated to my dad. It turns out that we are our parents after all. I know my dad taught me sweet talking and hard talking, and that is the reason I made my connection. I am one hundred percent sure he would have made that connection as well.

¿Ecuador?

So, I have some news. It turns out the man I was working with and I did not get along. It is kind of difficult for me to comprehend, seeing how if you know me, you probably don´t know a single person that I don´t get along with. In fact, even I can´t think of a person until now. And even now, I´m not entirely sure why we cannot work together. Anyway, for his sake I´m not going to go into any details. What I do know is that I got evicted the other day. Which is pretty lame, but it´s also strangly cool to say that I got evicted in Venezuela. I have a friend who was deported from Ireland once. I must say, being deported is way better than being evicted.

Anyway, that aside, I think this is all for the better. I have prayed about it for days, and I have a great peace as to what happened. I am now headed to Quito, Ecuador. I am going to work with the program CENIT. Check out www.cenitecuador.org. I´m really excited about it, and heck, I get to live in Quito! (which I´ve heard is amazing) Also, since Quito is more pricy than rural Venezuela, I´m coming home for Thanksgiving and am planning on working in America until the week after Christmas. I gotta make some grub, then back to Quito for five more months. So, if anyone want to travel and visit me in Quito, yall bring it!

Excited,
Stewart

More Pictures!

So, I just finished watching the Auburn game. Literally, like 5 minutes ago. I was planning on blogging, but I think I will wait until tomorrow now. Anyhow, I have some new pictures, so check out the picassa webpage. http://picasaweb.google.com/stewhill I have attached a link to it from this website now. Plus Cooper put up new pics, so check out his blog and picassa page.

BLOG POINTS:
1. Apparently there is this brand name Tío Rico. We aren´t sure what it exactly a brand name for, but it translates to Uncle Rico. Lord knows, I hope it it for Tupperware. If not, then camcorders and footballs.

2. Cooper ordered a hamburger the other day. The guy then looked him in the eye and said with chicken or beef. It was awesome. So was the hamburger.

3. So the internet is real slow obviously, so I have become good at minesweeper and hearts (buscaminas and corazones). I play them while the pages are loading. Anyway, the default player names in hearts are like Maria, Jose, and Jesús. I´m not sure about you, but I feel weird beating Jesus at hearts.

4. Every kid in town now knows Cooper´s nickname and continues to holler out ¨Take it do da hoooooooop Cooooooop!!!¨ It never gets old.

5. Apparently Body Glove T-shirts are ¨in¨ this year down here.

On farming and other things

So, I haven’t updated our status on San Pedro in a while. We have needed to talk with the community council, and the leader of the community council has been very sick lately. Thankfully she should back in good health next week. We are planning on meeting with her next week, so I should have an update next week. I know I have said that I will have an update about San Pedro a couple of times, but things just take forever here. I thought I was patient when I came here, but that proved to be wrong. This country is teaching me patience to a whole new level.

Anyway, with it being slow I have been able to farm several days. This town produces acres and acres of crops all farmed by hand. Lettuce, cabbage, zucchini, potatoes, cilantro, corn, and tons of other crops are farmed here and I think they only use three tools. At least, I’ve done some farming and only seen three tools. Literally, ONLY THREE TOOLS. The first is a fumigator, basically like a backpack that you wear as you walk through the fields spraying pesticides. The second is an esgardilla. What is an esgardilla you might ask? Is it a tractor? Is it some machine that tills the soil? Or plants the seeds? No. It is just Spanish for a hoe. To get a good image of the third tool you need to go to my mom’s house where she still keeps the Encyclopedia Britannica on the shelf. Grab the “XYZ” volume and look up the word Yolk. Odds are you will see a picture of two oxen strapped together by a yolk. I mean really, that’s all they use to produce acres of some of the most beautiful crops I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing. Anyway, after farming several days, I do have to say one thing. Farming is probably the hardest job on the planet.

Blog Points:
1. Cooper and I went to La Puerta to see if we could get mail delivered to the post office because we don’t have a mailbox. Turns out the lady in charge of that is out of town for a month. So I don’t mean to read into things, but does that mean no one can get mail for a month?
2. If anyone ever offers you a Malta in South America, Just Say No!
3. I met this girl last night who is 21 years old. My friend who is friends with her told me she used to be skinny and now she is fat. True enough she was the fattest one of her friends. Well her nickname down here is gorda. What does gorda mean in English? Fat. So they kept calling her Fat last night, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with that. Could you imagine that in the US?

Auburn Football

We have great news!!! Through CSTV we can watch live video feed of Auburn Football. As the Internet Cafe that is fast in Valera is not open when the games are on, Coop and I are going to come early Monday morning to watch the games. So, we will not check email or anything from when the game starts Saturday night, until Monday morning. Hopefully on Monday we can watch the game ¨live¨ for us.

Until then, War Eagle!

This entry is dedicated to my cousin Merrill, who helped up sign up for the service.

Pictures at Last!!!

Hey yall,

Cooper and I traveled an hour this morning to the big town Valera. We are currently using really fast internet, like really fast internet, and it´s freakin awesome!!!! So I put a ton of pictures on picassa on Google. Just go to this website to view them. http://picasaweb.google.com/stewhill. Oh and Cooper has pictures up too. So go to http://picasaweb.google.com/cooperbennett also. Anyway, not really going to say much today, just put up pictures. Now that I know I can put them up in the future I´m planning on taking a lot more pics. Hopefully I can come here every two weeks or so and put pics up!

take care,
stewart

Blog Points

So when you are in a place that is very different than the place you are accustomed to, little things can happen that seem very funny to you. These little things may be totally normal for the people who are accustomed to them, but being an outsider these things may be hilarious. For example, when more “cultured” people from up north come to the Supper Club (a redneck bar in Auburn) and see the shot bus, they think it’s comical. (For those that don’t know, the shot bus was the old bus that would give people from the bar a ride home in the seventies if they were too drunk. One day the bus broke down and as a good redneck Alabama bar should, the Supper Club left the bus in the backyard of the bar and converted it into a place where people can now go take shots.) Well people from different places may look at this bus and their jaw will drop open and they make take pictures. This is especially true for people not accustomed to seeing vehicles in yards. Anyway, people from Auburn just know it as the shot bus.

The same is true for my encounters in Venezuela. Seeing how this country couldn’t be more different than what I was used to, my jaw seems to drop open nearly everyday here in Venezuela. Cooper and I have deemed these moments “blog points”. They just happen, and we look at each other and just wish to tell everyone at home about these occurrences. Also included in blog points are things that are funny to Cooper and I and could only happen here. So, I hope to start adding a couple of “blog points” to the end of all of my blogs. But for this one, I’ll just write about several of them.

1. I bought a 2-liter coke the other day from the store in the town. The very nice man, Juan, grabs the coke out of the refrigerator then places it on the counter. He then proceeds to twist the cap only a little bit as to release a bit of gas and show me that it is very fresh. He looks at me as if in need of approval. I nod my head to reassure him and want to say, “yes, this wine is fine.”
2. So obviously I am not good at Spanish yet. The people here are very helpful in trying to teach me because they are very compassionate and because they want to talk to me. Anyway, if you ask a question in Spanish and it is not correct they will help me reword it for the conversation. But sometimes I can ask a question and it’s very incorrect, and they will tell me to just try again, or just look at me and say huh? And then there are silent questions. Silent questions are when I ask a question out loud in a crowd and no one responds. My theory on silent questions and that I am so incorrect in my Spanish that they think I am talking English out loud to myself.
3. Being taller than everyone is nothing but awesome. I feel like my really tall brother pretty much all the time down here. I think I’ve seen like three people taller than me.
4. I’ve noticed it’s real easy to be funny down here as well. All you need to do is be white and make complete sentences.
5. The other day I was on the computer and saw an ad that caught my eye. It was one of those real flashy ads on the side of the screen that in America may say, teenage girls want to talk to you now! But only it said in flashing green letters, “50,000 people will win a lifetime green card to the USA!!!”
6. I think people love mayonnaise down here. The other day I was eating later than everyone else so I was heating up my spaghetti and the sauce when Julianna gave me the mayonnaise jar with no expression on her face. To her, it seemed obvious that I knew what I was supposed to do with the mayonnaise jar. I just stood there aghast, until she laughed and told me to put it on my noodles. I did. I should have been on better guard because a few days earlier I noticed that in this Chinese grocery store, where you can literally buy any grocery you need, half of one of their only ten rows (five aisles) was stocked with mayonnaise. I’ve never seen anything like it. (For those that know JD Lloyd, he probably would have thrown up on the spot.)
7. I got duped by a five year old the other day. You know when you have trash in your hand, and you want to give it to someone else to throw away, so you quickly say “hold on to this,” and then they are stuck with it. Well this kid took his time. I couldn’t understand him, but I could understand he wanted me to straighten my arm. So I did. Then he put trash in the elbow and bent my arm. I was stuck with the trash, and all the older people around laughed. Point being, never trust a five year old Venezuelan, even if you think the child has innocence.
8. A ten year old put on a DVD of a cock fight the other day for me to watch. It was pretty terrible.
9. Apparently being a man and wearing a hot pink poncho villa blanket with your collar popped and wearing ray-bans is in style down here. I forgot to pack mine.
10. I saw an eight-year-old today galloping on a horse down the street. A good trivia question would be, “Was he on a Western or and English saddle?” Neither. All he had was a rope.

Anyhow. Sorry this blog was so long. Expect more blogs very soon! Thanks for reading them!

stew

San Pedro Clinic

So I tried to upload a picture and it just didn´t work. It was real close, and I thought it was going to work, but it didn´t. Sorry.

I want to describe the differences between what I experienced at Friday’s clinic in San Pedro and what I know to be a clinic at UAB.

So to start, in Birmingham I hop in my Toyota Tacoma, put on some Lucero, Drive by Truckers, or some other band and casually breeze down 280 into UAB. I park in a designated parking spot and walk to the Kirklin Clinic, probably wearing some nice pants, button down shirt with tie, and my white coat. On the contrary, on Friday I walk to the street carrying a trunk full of medicine. It is slightly raining when the transport vehicle shows up. I talk with him in Spanish, and he decides to strap the trunk full of medicine to the front bumper of his Toyota Landcruiser Jeep. That way he can still fit 8 people in the back to carry down the mountain. On the way down he has to use four wheel drive because the rain has picked up and the roads are muddy. I’m wearing my boots, jeans, Oskar’s t-shirt, and my Auburn hat turned backwards.

After arriving to the Kirklin clinic I find my way to the clinic I am supposed to be at and pick up a patient’s chart that I need to talk with. The clinic is full of doctors, nurses, receptionists, private rooms, beds to lay the patient on, computers, an in house pharmacy, everything you could dream about. When I arrive in San Pedro, I go to what we would say is a shack, but is actually a “nice” house in this slum. (Keep in mind that it is not nice for Venezuela, only for this slum.) The house is made up of two rooms with a curtain separating them. We get stationed in the kitchen, which is about 12 feet by 10 feet. There is Mary Alison there to translate, a student from South Carolina that is living with us for the year, a trunk full of medicine, me, a fourth year medical student, and as many kitchen supplies as you would ever need in a doctor’s office. No charts, no doctors, no private rooms. Just one crowded kitchen.

Then whether I am in Birmingham or San Pedro, I get to sit down with the patient, talk about what is going wrong, do a physical exam and diagnose the problem. That is about the only thing that is similar between the two different clinics.

When I finish with a patient in Birmingham, I may have a couple of minutes or so to myself before I head into the next patient room because there are private doors. In San Pedro as soon as one patient stands up, another one sits down in the chair across from me. This is because there are like ten people in the kitchen, people waiting outside the kitchen, and no appointments. The clinic ran non-stop from 3:00 to 8:00. I just can’t describe how much I enjoyed it. The good news is that we are now planning on having clinics there every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the same time. The reason we do it in the afternoon/evening is so people can come after work.

One last thing. In Birmingham, I walk back to my Tacoma and drive home feeling good about a day’s work. However, here my friend Catirre came and picked Mary Alison and I up in another Toyota Landcruiser, only this one had the back end similar to a jeep not a wagon. There are only two seats, so obviously Catirre and Mary Alison got the seats. I got to stand in the back, holding on the bar that rises over the top of the jeep, looking out over the front of the jeep. It was slightly misty, as we drove back to the house. The wind coupled with the mist hitting my face felt perfect, while smelling that developing country smell that you know if you’ve ever been to one. Smells like gasoline but is somehow refreshing. All the while we are climbing a mountain in the Andes and I can look below and see the city of La Puerta and look above and see thousands of stars. Then I felt the stethoscope around my neck and just thought of how different this was than the States, but something about it was just so right. That drive was easily my favorite moment thus far in Venezuela.

Lo siento, todovía no fotas

Sorry I haven’t written in several days. I was hoping to wait until my friend Cooper got here and then use his flash drive to upload pictures. Anyhow, that didn’t work because the Internet here is slower than me running a 60 yard touchdown at John Carroll in the ninth grade. (Contact Mike Baker if you want to see the video.) Anyhow, Adonys, a nurse that lives with us, is supposedly the web guru of the house and is going to show me the best way to upload pictures. So next time, I promise some pictures!!! Anyway, I just wanted to share a few things that have happened to me over the past couple of days that just bring a smile to my face:

The other day I felt very international because I was reading the French Les Miserables in English while smoking a Cuban cigar in Venezuela.

We were in a taxi the other day driving the wrong way on a one way for like four blocks, meanwhile, the Ghost soundtrack is blaring in the background.

This morning Cooper and I went to an Internet café in the tourist town of La Puerta at the base of our mountain. We spent 17 minutes on the Internet, and Cooper got to the Google homepage. I didn’t get to a webpage.

I played baseball in the clouds with some of my local friends here. Keep in mind I live 30 minutes from Johann Santanna’s hometown.

Hearing a five year old try to sing the words to Lil’ John’s Get Low in a thick Spanish accent.

Anyway, I haven’t worked in San Pedro yet. We were supposed to have a clinic there today, but it didn’t work out. We are hoping to have one tomorrow or the next day. Then hopefully we will have a clinic in San Pedro three-four times a week after that. We spoke to a local of San Pedro today, and they seemed very welcoming and offered their ramshackle house to hold the clinic. So that’s exciting. It’s weird not having a doctor above me to support my decisions. I’m a little nervous about it, but it’s better than them having nothing.

So, sorry no pics, but I promise there will be a picture (hopefully many) on this website by Monday! So come back Tuesday morning. Oh, and I really appreciate all the comments. Really, they mean a lot, and are funny. Keep them coming.

Venezuela at Last!

So I have arrived in Venezuela, and all is well. In fact, I do not believe things can be much better. Last night we celebrated a family member´s therteenth birthday, and it almost brought tears to my eyes. After we had finished supper, all the lights were turned off except for the sole candle lighting Andres´s birthday cake. Our family was crowded around him and everyone sand the Spanish version of Happy Birthday. The song had many verses and then closed in verses with a similar tune of the Happy Birthday song we all know. I looked around and Francisco(the head of the house) and Andres´s mother had shed a couple of tears, as well as Andres himself. I believe the song showed everyone in the room how much family means to each other. Maybe I am reading into this too much, but I have never seen anyone cry before while singing Happy Birthday. It was pretty damn moving.

Anyway, enough of the sappy stuff...I was excited today because I got to see my first three patients!!! One patient had carpal tunnel syndrome, and I gave her a brace that should alleviate the problem. Another patient came in with her 5 month old baby, which I believe has the beginning of croup. It was exciting to giver her advice about when to go to the hospital, and why the child was coughing. The mom also has a history of anemia and has been extremely tired recently, so I got to order all the blood work needed to diagnose what type of anemia she may or may not have. She is coming back in a week or two to discuss the test results, and hopefully I will not have to use a translator when she returns.

I also got to see what I am going to be working with for the next year. There is a slum at the base of the mountain called San Pedro. We are not yet sure what the needs of the town are, but we know the families have poor medical care and terrible sanitation. The slum has a manageable population. We walked around the area, and I estimate there are probably 100'200 families that live in San Pedro. Being the eternal optimist, i believe the sky is the limit with respect to what we can accomplish. HOpefully we can raise enough funds to buiild a medical clinic and setup a primary health care program. There is a very sturdy barn in San Pddro that could easily be converted into a medical clinic, pharmacy, school, and whatever else we need. It is very large, but would need a lot of work. Hopefully we can setup a good medical clinic by the end of the year, and if it sees enough patients, the government will hire a doctor to run the clinic permanently. All these are dreams right now, but Francisco and I both believe the dreams are attainable. He has worked for twenty years with the poor in Venezuela, so if he thinks the dreams are achievable, then I should not doubt him. We are not going to make any plans for the San Pedro Project until Cooper, my friend from Birmingham, arrives in Carorita on Tuesday. Then hopefully we can start the planning. Anyway, I am very excited because Francisco and I are going to hold a clinic in San Pedro on Thursday. I am sure I will have much to write about on Friday concerning San Pedro.

All right, this blog is long enough right now. I must say, I apologize for not putting pictures on the blog yet!!! I swear an Apple IIgs could produce faster Internet than the computer I am using. After Cooper brings a flash drive, pictures will come. So wait until next week.

To close with something funny, I was out last night with my friend and roomate Emilio, and I went to meet some of his friends. We had a great time last night, but at one point he introduced me to one of his friends, and his friend said his name pretty fast, and I didn´t quite catch it. I tried repeating what he said in order to learn his name, but apparently instead of repeating his name, I said the a word for the female genitalia. All the boys starting laughing, and Emilio told me what I had done. It was pretty darn funny.

stew

p.s. In case you have not gone to Jason´s blog, I recommend it. Gonzowilson.blogspot.com It is also pretty darn funny!

Birmingham International Airport

I'm sitting at the Birmingham Airport about to get on my flight to Houston. From Houston I fly to Panama, not PCB, then to Maracaibo Venezuela. Needless to say, having the plane tickets in my back pocket gives me that same traveler's high that I always enjoy.

I can't express how much this past week meant to me. After finishing my board exams I got to hang out with a bunch of med school friends, then I went to Scott Crawford's wedding where we celebrated Courtney and Scott. Scott and I were listening for the best "line" of the weekend, and I believe the award goes to Nikki, Scott's mom. At one point all the groomsmen were booty dancing around Nikki. She had like five or six guys grinding up on her, just having a hell of a time. Later in the night, I spoke to Nikki about the dance and she said, "No offense to Steven (her husband), but I haven't been that excited in years!" It was a gas!!! (I feel older for just using that word.)

Then Sunday night my sister and great friends Libby, Andrew, Craig, and JD put together a surprise going away party at my house. It was so thoughtful for all of yall to come! It just really meant a lot! I had such a great time, and I know yall did as well because Charlie (Andrew's dog looking thing) was there. Bert cooked his legendary Boston Butt BBQ which of course hit the spot. I'll always remember that party.

Then Monday night we went Davenport's and Trivia with Reed. After JD finished an entire large pizza, Blake and I played darts, where he beat me with a double bulls eye on the final throw. We of course lost because we didn't have Conor, our Dark Lord of Trivia. It was fun as always, and I got an apron that preaches my motto "Never cook bacon naked!"

Last night after an always delicious meal at Judy's Pumphouse Diner, Trey, my brother, and Billy, my cousin hung out and went to watch The Bourne Ultimatum. Bad Ass. I mean, go see that movie if you haven't. It was so great to see Billy!

I guess the reason I bring all this up is to say that I have so much in Birmingham. One significant reason I'm off for a year is to see what it is like living away from friends and family. I want to see if I could work abroad for years at a time, if I could leave friends and family for that amount of time. Last week certainly showed me what I would be leaving. I am so fortunate to call each one of yall my friends. Yall are great and I love yall!

Anyhow, I have to get on the plane in a few minutes, so I'd better run. Can't wait to get to Venezuela!!! I'll post a bunch of pictures next time!

p.s. I believe you can subscribe to this blog if you want. I believe what happens is that when I edit the blog it notifies you through your bookmark or through your google or yahoo homepage. I don't yet know a way to get on a listserv or anything if I put new stuff on the blog. Anyhow, just letting yall know.

this is kinda fun

This feels weird. I'm about to write something having no clue what it is going to be about, and yall are going to read it (well, all 3 of you reading this...) I don't watch television really, but I feel this is a bit like reality tv. Yall sitting there just reading what I write. Right now it doesn't seem that different to me than people just watching whatever it is Paris Hilton is doing? I mean the whole world can read this blog. This feels weird. Is it appropriate to mention Paris Hilton in your first ever blog? In the first paragraph? I didn't mean to.

Oh well, so as you see I have my first ever blog! I'm very excited about it. I have to say it was Abby Maddox who inspired me to do this. I have been reading her blog for a while, and she is this amazing writer. I would put her web address right here, but I'm not yet sure if that is kosher. More so, I don't have a clue how to hyperlink. Anyway, I on the other hand was not blessed as a writer. In fact the MCAT (a test you take to get into grad school) went on to say my writing skills were in the 11th-12th percentile. Considering that probably 10-20% of people that wrote essays in English that day don't speak English as there primary language, that percentile does not bode well for this blog. But, you are here, and I thank you for it!!! I hope you come back!!!

So, here's my plan. Over the past couple of months my family and friends have told me they want to know all about what I am doing in Venezuela. They have expressed wishes for me to keep in touch and tell stories about what is going on. So on stewarthill.blogspot.com (mom, that's this page) I plan to share all my stories and photos. IN ADDITION, I am going to try to blog on many different matters as the year goes. For example, why college football is the greatest sport in the world, why we must help impoverished nations, or what are my top ten favorite U2 songs. I have probably said enough for now. Next time I will have a serious blog or will I? Who knows, maybe I'll just take another cheap shot at my mom? I guess you'll just have to come back and see!