Taking a Hot Shower Ranks Number 3 on My List of Things I Have Done the Past Four Weeks

Tuesday December 9, 2009
Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz

And that’s not to say that I haven’t done some incredible things along the way… I have indeed, so without further ado, here is the Sam Zuber’s Top 6 List of Things I Have Done in the Galapagos Since the Last Blog Update:

#6: THANKSGIVING

You know you have begun to immerse in a different culture when your taste buds start to change. A while ago, I was walking through the kioskos, which is a street full of restaurants where all the locals eat. As I am walking down, I saw someone eating nothing but a plate of rice and beans. Never would I have ever thought in my life I would be thinking to myself “Boy, I sure could go for some rice and beans right now! I’m craving them!” but alas, this has happened.
Fortunately for me, for at least one night I was able to dig deep down with my American friends and other volunteers and pull out a good ol’ fashion Thanksgiving Dinner. The Thanksgiving dinner is probably one of the most important times of the year in America. After all, it is the busiest travel day of the year as people all over the country get together with family and friends to give thanks for everything they have.

My friends and I each strayed away from the rice and beans for one night and stuffed ourselves with chicken (turkey was way to expensive, but the chicken was cooked like a turkey and actually tasted really good! Great sub), stuffing, roasted potatoes (mmmm made by yours truly), green beans, wine, and some of the best homemade apple pie I have ever had! (I’m getting the recipe, so I am going to learn how to make it daily and eat it and become 300 pounds). We also went around as is the tradition in Mary’s family and each stated what we were thankful for, which is something I don’t do with my family, but really liked. I was also the only man there and being such a manly man, it was my responsibility to carve the chicken. This was also new to me because I never cave the turkey at home, but I learned quickly and did a good job! After an incredible stuffed meal we all went out and danced the night away until we burned maybe 1/8 of our dinner away. It wasn’t home, but you couldn’t have asked for a better substitute.


Carving that baby up pretty well!


4 Californians + 1 Floridian + 1 Coloradoan + 1 Norwegian + 1 Filipino= Thanksgiving!!!


#5: GARAPATERRA

The first time I went to Garapaterra, I had a lot of fun, but the view of the stars blew me away and mesmerized me for the night. I made sure that would not happen this time. On our way up to Garapaterra, we stopped at my friend Juan’s finca, which is a farm more or less. There were about 20-30 chickens and baby chicks that were just roaming around aimlessly. Elham, who has a baby chick obsession, decided she was going to go play with them. She picked one up rather effortlessly and handed it me. It was very calm and tweeted for a little. I handed it back to Elham, who then decided to be greedy and went to scoop up another chick. Mother hen was not okay with that and out of nowhere flew into Elham’s face until she moved away from the chick.

We arrived at the campsite around 2 hours before sunset so we set up really quickly. After pitching up our tent (this time inside the camp site and not on the beach unfortunately, we went out onto the beach and played foot volleyball and then swam for a little while watching the sun set. As I was walking back I saw Alexi and Caroline heading away from the campsite and asked where they were going? They had stationed their tent in a different area that was right on the shore and had hung up their hammocks onto this small group of trees just feet away from the water. I was incredibly jealous and wanted to move my tent, but now that it was dark it was going to be tough to disassemble a four-person tent and then reassemble it. After helping my friend Alan with his tent, I came up with the idea that what I would do is either sleep in Alexi and Caroline’s tent if they slept in the hammocks, and if they choose the tent, well then I’d be more than happy with the hammock. We started the grill and made fish and roasted some vegetables and was becoming a custom, enjoyed our food, drinks, and company.

We brought the cooler with the rest of the food and drinks onto the beach where Alexi and Caroline’s tent was. The traveling British duo brought out the guitars and we sang and dance under the cloudy night sky. It is truly amazing how much natural light can light up an entire place.


Caroline and Elham


As the night went on people started slowly creeping to bed until it was just Elham, Alan, and I. Since the bugs were attacking our feet we decided to put our feet in the ocean, which was considerably warm. The night sky finally had cleared up and the stars were magnificent. We stayed awake for a few more hours before calling it a night. I threw on every article of clothing I had brought other than my bathing suit and slept in the hammock. It was amazing! The sound of the waves put me to sleep in minutes and when I woke up to the light (about two hours later, I saw this view):



I don’t know of many other natural scenes I would have preferred to wake up to; especially when you add the smell of the ocean, the sound of the waves and birds, and the ocean breeze. What was also really cool was to see how alive everything was as well. It was prime bird feeding time and there were all these different finches and gulls eating up any food they could find from us. I walked over to where I could get a good view of the sunrise, which was really beautiful.



Because everyone was still sleeping, I decided to nap a little bit more. When I finally saw Alexi and Caroline had woken up, I decided to change into my bathing suit and take an early morning swim. Elham caught up with me and we swam to a small little lava rock island. After chilling there for 30 minutes, we headed back to meet up with the rest of the crew and eat some breakfast. When we got there though, we saw that some Galapagaens had made themselves right at home in the middle of our campsite and that the birds had eaten up everything. While we were somewhat annoyed with the locals just setting up shop, we convinced ourselves that we had no right to just take the best spot and claim it our own. Good thing we said nothing too, because it ended up being the son of my house mom and he recognized me. They had brought with them this huge tub of fried rice and were incredibly generous in providing me with two huge portions of food, which of course was scavenged by the rest of my group (I didn’t mind).

A few hours later, as I am just lying on the beach, Juan came up to me to tell me that Alan and Jose Louis had taken his air mattress into the ocean to float on it. When we arrived at the location they took off from, we saw that the air mattress and floated away into the middle of the ocean. Juan and I headed back to the main beach and told these people who rented kayaks that we needed one so we could rescue our friends. The guy gave us one, and followed us in his own with his son just to make sure we weren’t kidding around. When we got to the area where we saw the air mattress, we saw it was now at the point they had taken off from. Rather than carrying it though all the way back to the main beach, the geniuses I was with decided it would be better to have the kayak tow it back around the rocks to the main beach. I didn’t mind as it meant I got to ride on the bed in the ocean.


I'm on a Boat.... I mean Bed!

I had given my camera to Caroline who was sitting in the middle of the kayak belonging to the owner. She was telling me she could not take a picture since she couldn’t rotate her body without tipping the kayak, so I told her to give it to the boy. She did and just as the boy was about to take a picture, the kayak tipped! Suddenly the rescued became the rescuers and the most important thing that needed rescuing was my camera. I saw the boy come up and rather than asking if he was okay I started shouting “Tienes mi camera?!?!?!” He did indeed. I later found out that the boy could not really swim. I didn’t really feel guilty though as I had made the assumption that one who works with water sports would know how to swim in the water. How one manages to work with kayaks, but not learn how to swim is beyond me, but hey it’s Ecui Logic! It was a great trip.


#4: WE REACHED 250!!!!!!

While I have really enjoyed my experience at the hospital (as you will see in a sec), I have really felt that the blood pressure/blood sugar screening I conduct for free to the public has been the most rewarding experience. The truth of the matter is that whether or not I work in the hospital, those patients will be seen and taken care of. I’m not really a difference maker there and I am not improving the lives of anyone by being there.

On the other hand, with the screening, each week we have gotten people who are in their 40’s and 50’s who have never had their blood pressure or blood sugars checked. Of the 40 people we averaged per week, about 5 of them had blood sugar levels over 200, many of them even over 400. For those of you who don’t know, a fasting (not eating for 4-6 hours prior to checking your sugar) sugar level should be around 100. For these people to have concentrations that are double to quadruple normal is the definition of a high blood sugar diabetic emergency. As a volunteer your main goal is that you hope you have made a difference in the lives and the community of wherever you are helping. With this project, I feel that I am making a difference in some of the members of the community and that even if at the end of the day, one parson I check goes and sees a doctor, gets the appropriate medication, and sticks to it for years to come, which would allow him or her to live a longer life, then the project was infinitely worth it. We have had a lot of people come back for a second checkup and some have made it part of their routine.

The hope with this project is that this screening provided by Galapagos ICE will become a weekly thing or at least bi-monthly. The fact that we have screened over 250 people is outstanding!


#3: TAKING A HOT SHOWER

Some of you might ask how making an impact on some lives in the Galapagos can be lower on the list than the following 3, but you need to realize that this is just for the month, not for the trip as a whole. Many years down the road, when you ask me, hopefully a good, successful doctor what was the most rewarding experience of me being here it will hopefully be doing the screenings.

However, I can ask you a rhetorical question. How many hot showers have you taken since October 8th? If the answer is 3, then you and I are on the same page and you hopefully understand the how amazing hot shower truly is. To top it off, it was the FIRST hot shower I had that ALSO had pressure since I have been here. It was definitely the cleanest I have felt since I have been here and I felt like a new person, revived with lots of energy! It made my 24hr shift the next day much more doable.

#2: JUMPING OFF A 20m HIGH LEDGE INTO A LAGOON




By far one of the most adrenaline rushed things I have ever done. Las Grietas is a beautiful series of rock crevices that has two small lagoons with very clear water. For those Americans out there who are unsure what 20 meters is in feet, it’s about 60, so about the height of a six story building. When we got to Las Grietas, we saw locals jumping form all different heights. There was no way I was going all the way to the top and I stuck with a nice 10m high jump. I jumped off and……. No sweat. I went to the next highest platform and again, it was relatively easy. By then, I kind of had a feeling that I would be jumping from the highest point later on in the day.
The first time I was here during the beginning of my trip, I had only known of the first lagoon, and was disappointed since I didn’t see a lot of fish. I found out later there was a second lagoon, which I went to this time. There were not a ton of fish, but a lot more than before and I was able to get a couple of good shots. We then did some underwater posing before my friend Juan started shivering. Because he has no fat on him, he gets cold incredibly fast. Alexi, Caroline, Alan and I took turns holding him and swimming him to a dry area between the two lagoons. After about 30 minutes of warming him up (we swam towels and sheets over our heads), we got him across the first lagoon. I decided it was time to test fate and climbed the hard way all the way to the top of the ledge. Some local kid had just recently gone, so as I was looking down, I could see exactly where he had landed unscathed by the rocks below. My heart was beating, but now that I was here, I was not going to back down. I yelled to Caroline to get my camera ready as I prepped myself for the jump. The adrenaline in my body was starting to pour out into my blood and I could feel my heart beating out of my chest and my lungs expanding with air. “No guts, no glory,” I said at a volume a little more audible than a whisper. My eyes were focused on the target made from the jumper before. All of this was going on while I was blocking any common sense I had out. “1, 2, 3 WOOOOOO!!!!!”

I screamed as I jumped over the ledge. By now, it was out of my control. I knew I had jumped the right amount due to the previous smaller jumps, but as I was coming down the common sense that had been blocked out barricaded itself back into my mind. “I jumped to short, I’m going to hit those rocks! No! I jumped too far! I’m going to pass the lagoon and hit the rocks on the other side. Too short. Too long. Too short. Too long!” My body’s sympathetic nervous system, our natural fight or flight mechanism, was on overdrive. I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins into my legs, arms, chest, and head. My eyes widened the longer I stayed in the air thinking the whole time “too short, too long, too short..."

"YES!”



SPLASH!!!!!!!

I had made it.

The water had cushioned my fall as I came back to my senses. I could NOT believe what I had just done. As I was swimming up to the surface, I could still feel the adrenaline flowing through my body and sink in all over. What seemed like an eternity was nothing but a mere 2 seconds.
I was so pumped I had just done that jump that I decided to join my friend Alexi back at the top again. More or less it was the exact same experience I had before. No wonder certain people are adrenaline junkies. The feeling afterward is indescribable. I uses the best way to describe it would be a combination of the fear you feel when you are on a roller coaster mixed in with the excitement you feel when you finished your last final and you know you aced it too. The collision of feelings is just unique. What could be better?



#1 DELIVERING A BABY!


Yep, that’s right. Me, Sam Zuber, 22-year-old EMT-Basic, was scrubbed in and ready to go at the number 7 position. It was around 12:00 am and this woman came into the ER stating that her water had broken. We put on the ultrasound and called in Christina, one of the OB-GYNs. We got the woman ready for delivery. As I was walking into the delivery room, Christina turned around and asked if I wanted to help. Of course I replied yes thinking I was just going to be on the side maybe holding down a leg. Wrong again!

AGAIN, BIRTH IS A GROSS THING, SO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SKIP THIS, SCROLL DOWN BELOW:


Christina pointed to a gown and another set of sterile gloves and told me to put them on. After I was scrubbed in and ready to go, I was standing right in front of the action. Christina showed me exactly what I needed to do, which started out by finding where the location of the head was in the cervix. The head was no more than a few inches away from the opening of the canal. Christina told the woman to start pushing. I have to say, that I give mad props to all women for doing this, but a bonus award goes to the Galapagaen women. This woman had no drugs, and even though it was evident she was in pain, not a word of complaining or screaming from her. I was absolutely amazed. I was applying pressure to the lower area of the birth canal in order that it would not rip as the baby’s head got closer and closer. The head was all of the sudden in my hands as the woman continued to push. Not losing concentration, I started rotating the baby’s head clockwise along with the rest of the body as it came out too. In a flash the entire baby was out and in my arms. I placed the baby girl on her mom’s belly and began rubbing her back to stimulate her breathing. The baby let out a cry and she was fine.



FOR THOSE WHO SKIPPED


Me with Patricia


Delivering the baby was probably one of the most incredible things I have ever done in my life. I was the first being to touch this magnificent baby who was just at the start of her life with so much potential and so much hope. I myself was stunned that I had just been given such an opportunity here to deliver this baby and had on the biggest smile. After the baby was cleaned up and given some medicine, I went over and watched as one of the nurses dressed her. I felt such a strong connection with this baby and I hadn’t even known it for 10 minutes. I stuck out my hand and her little hands grabbed onto my index finger. It brought such joy into my body and it felt as if the baby knew I was the one who had delivered her into this world (with the help of the docs of course). I carried Patricia over to her mom and laid her down next to her. That was the last time I saw Patricia, and while Patricia probably never could recognize, me, this experience is something that will be ingrained in my mind forever.


Mother and Daughter meet for first time

As I start to approach the end of my trip, I look back and smile. What an incredible experience I have had so far and it’s about to get better! I leave tomorrow for San Cristobal where my sister will be arriving on Friday. We are going to be traveling all over the islands for the next two weeks until she leaves on the 24th of December. Before I started college, I knew that regardless of what I did after college, I wanted to do something I would never have the chance to do again. Here I am in the Galapagos being exposed to incredible things medically, making a difference in some people’s lives, and doing something so extraordinary it surprises me. I know we all can’t wait to grow up, but if you have chance, even it it’s for a few weeks or a month, go be a kid again and explore this amazing world and everything it has to offer. There is so much to learn that just can’t be taught in a book.

You have been given the blessing of life.


LIVE IT

Hey Ma if You Could See Me Now!

Wednesday November 18, 2009
Puerto Ayora 22:22

After spending my first month temporarily in one house, I have moved down the street to my new host family. It’s a completely different experience here. My first family consisted of my host Mom Norma and her son Raphael along with 4 other volunteers. Here however, Dora, my new house Mom and her entire family live in this makeshift duplex. There are little kids always running around which gives the house a certain type of vivaciousness. In case kids screaming weren’t going to wake me up in the morning, I also have the incredible privilege of waking up to a rooster crowing in the backyard. Oh and a little myth about the rooster that needs to be straightened out. They crow at all hours of the day and night, not just at sunrise. They fortunately also are baking bread at 6:30 in the morning, which smells absolutely incredible. The family also doesn’t speak a lot of English, so it has really allowed me to work on my Spanish. So far the new family has been clucking great!




One of the projects I am working on here has been providing free blood pressure and blood sugar screenings with the help of one of the volunteers named Sienne. While I do enjoy working in the hospital, my work on this project I feel is making the biggest difference in some of the lives of people on the island. So far we have caught about twelve adults with blood sugar levels over 200 (most over 300 and one was over 600) and four people I know seek medical treatment after running a second blood sugar test a few days later. It’s amazing the number of people on this island that have never had their blood pressure or blood sugar levels ever checked and aren’t even sure of what it is they can do to help control their levels.

Work at the hospital has been good. It’s incredible the number of women here that are pregnant and I would put money on the table to go as far as stating that majority are under the age of 20. I was talking with my host mom’s daughter who is 29 and has 4 children. She was telling me how her and a lot of her friends had their first children at 15-16 years old. She now has a daughter who is 14. That means there is a chance she could be a grandma at the age of 31!!!!! WOAH!

When I was working last Saturday night, we all of the sudden saw the fire truck with its sirens on. It was the first time I saw the fire truck so I went and grabbed my camera since a photo of the fire truck is more difficult to capture than one of an albatross. I suddenly saw an entire parade with music, cars, and floats with crazy designs. On top of each float was an outstanding woman. I had absolutely no idea what was going on and neither did anyone else. It turns out that it was a Miss Galapagos pageant. I was so mad I missed it, but at least I saw them driving down the street and obviously waving at me (girls love doctors)

One of the advantages of working with a doctor who speaks English is that you deal with the tourists. Granted most of the time that would be a negative (just kidding), we got to go on a large luxury sailboat yesterday and check the crew for any flu-like symptoms. It was a beautiful boat and I told them that if they need any extra crewmembers to please don’t hesitate to call. Their next stop is through the Panama Canal to get to the Bahamas. I doubt I’ll get the call despite one of his crewmembers being sick, but like Kevin Garnett, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!!!!


"I'm on a boat!"

Last Monday we had a barbecue at my friends’ Alan and Jose Louis’ house. I have been trying to have this be a weekly thing, so that I can enjoy some incredible fish. This week it was Wahoo glazed in a soy-teriyaki sauce and some albacore tuna that was brushed with a little oil, salt and pepper. It was a little on the rare side, but I’m a huge fan of undercooked fish and I thought it was great. We then wanted to go and see the Leonids Meteor shower since most nights it’s a clear sky and we should be able to see the Leo constellation from the Galapagos. Of course the one night I want to look at the stars I can’t because it decided to be cloudy. If not for the great company, I might have been a little frustrated, but we had fun anyways. While setting up for one of the pictures, I almost stepped on a marine iguana and it brushed against my leg as I then started shouting like a little kid. I turned on my flashlight to see an entire family of marine iguanas lying on top of each other. It was basically like an orgy of marine iguanas on this one black rock. They sure do like to huddle up close to each other.

I am working a 24 hr shift tomorrow with a little 2 hour break during which I am going with Sienne to provide a free BP, blood sugar screening to the local police here. It’s crazy to see how quickly time flies as I only have 7 weeks left. My sister Kendra comes in a few weeks which will be great and when I will be doing the majority of my traveling to the other islands! SOOOO EXCITED!

Vias Activas and Halloween!!!!

Last Saturday, in Puerto Ayora was the third Vias Activas event. Vias Activas was started a few months ago as a health awareness program after the son of one of the top government officials was killed riding his bike by a car. What started out as a small event has blossomed into an all day affair on the last Saturday of every month. Aside from working in the hospital here, I had decided I also wanted to be involved in continuing a health project that Galapagos ICE had started called Ponte En Forma. The project is basically a general health assessment of the population of Santa Cruz consisting mainly of people from Puerto Ayora, Bellavista, and Santa Rosa.

We decided that a great way to collect more people was to have our own stand at the event and offer free blood pressure and blood sugar screenings. They had closed down some of the roads in the main part of town so we were able to set up right next to the road. Between 9am and 1pm, we were continually busy checking about 50 people. Since I was the only one who was checking pressures and sugars, we were pretty slow, but ended up having a good system (almost BEMCo like!), and it was great to get a break around noon by Sienne, who took over. For people who had readings that were high, we told them that we would be available on Monday to check again for free with information about how to control blood pressure and sugar levels. It was amazing to hear that a decent amount of the people who came had never had their blood pressure or blood sugar levels checked.

After Vias Activas, I joined Dr. Hok Wah at the hospital to work until night. They were extremely fortunate for Vias Activas as it meant that the ER was running pretty slowly. I had the chance to do stitch a couple people who had fallen off their bikes or got their foot caught in the chains, so I’m hoping that by the time med school comes around, I’m going to be a pro.

That night was Halloween, which is celebrated here in conjunction with Day of the Dead when people pay their respects to their ancestors. It was very cool to walk by cemeteries and observe families gathering around graves in the midst of the night. My friends and I of course decided to go out. I dressed up as Dr. Love aka Doctor Amor wearing my scrubs with a big heart on my back. I had also made some little ¨prescriptions¨ cards which were in Spanish for me to hand out to girls. They had things written on them like take one kiss on the cheek from the doc or one dance with doc, etc. I didn’t give out as many as I would have liked, but I did give out some and I had a fun time at the bar! It is a costume I might have to reuse in the States for Purim or next year’s Halloween. We went to Bongo, the dance bar we normally go to. The pool table was removed, so the dance floor was larger ad it was packed with a mixture of locals, volunteers, and tourists. The bar put on a couple of dances one to Moulin Rouge's "Lady Marmalade." There are definitely some amazing dancers on these islands as well as some really bad ones too. We headed home around 3 in the morning. Overall, a very fun night!

I am starting to get into a routine here, so nothing exciting, other than partaking in a great barbecue, which allowed me to have the fresh perfectly made fish I have been craving here this whole time!!!! Hopefully these barbecues will be a weekly or bi weekly thing, though they can never compare to those great times in Israel at Hebrew U! A big shout out to my boy Jared who has finally joined basically everybody in our class of being 23 (except Winston cause she´s a baby). Happy Birthday KIDDO!

Puerto Ayora, Nautre, and Hospital Oh My!

Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
October 27, 2009 16:30


Well it’s been about a little more than two weeks since I arrived in Puerto Ayora, and I finally have a chance to kind of sit down and post updates. From the way that the natural environment encapsulates this town to the uniqueness of the cultural environment, this might be one of the most interesting places I have been to. I am going to write here about the town, the environment, and what I have been doing in terms of my work.

Puerto Ayora:
When I got to Puerto Ayora, the first thing I noticed was that it appeared as if there was a lot of construction going on and that maybe the town was expanding. Well the town is expanding, but the thing is as I looked closer at these so called construction projects, I noticed nothing was being done on them; it was as if someone laid foundation, placed up a couple of beams, maybe even a level, and then stopped. There is something apparently that I have learned here that is called Ecualogic, which basically incorporates the fact that while people here have lots of ideas on how to improve the town, they usually will stop midway through the project or they will do a half-ass job of it figuring someone else will come along and finish it. Obviously it is not the case everywhere, but it is very apparent. It really comes down to if you have to ask yourself why, just remember, you are in the Galapagos and that answer is pretty much justifiable. I will give them props though on not being wasteful. You will see that even in these half done buildings, people manage create a home for their families.

The town itself is also really small and takes about 25 minutes to walk around most of it. My house is a far fifteen-minute walk to the main docks. I live currently with a host family in a 3 story yellow house that looks like it is the only house to survive a major storm. Here is a picture of the house.




I live with four other volunteers here, all girls, with three of them from my program. They’re great though occasionally I do wish there was a little more testosterone in the house. One of the girls from San Diego is preparing the teachers for a teaching exam and then is trying to coordinate a program pairing a volunteer with a teacher in order that the teacher can practice his or her English and the volunteer his or her Spanish. Another girl also from San Diego is volunteering at the women and child abuse center here and has begun teaching self-defense classes for women. The third girl from the Philippines started by working on organizing a library in a town 10 minutes away called Bellavista and is now teaching 3 classes there. She is teaching her students English while incorporating the Galapagos Islands into her lessons. The fourth girl from Norway is also teaching English in the schools around town.

We live with our host Mom, Norma, who is an English teacher. By English teacher I mean she knows the ABC song and…… that’s about it. In my month and a half of learning Spanish, I now know more Spanish than she does English. You ask yourself how on Earth a woman who doesn’t speak English is teaching it and then you remember: It’s the Galapagos and through Ecualogic it all makes sense! She’s very nice and thoughtful though especially when it comes to the fact that I do not eat pork and shell fish. Norma cooks two meals a day for the volunteers, lunch and dinner, which comprise of some combination of rice, vegetable, and meat with a soup for lunch and then a fried rice with egg, meat and a vegetable for dinner. The meat is either a beef, chicken, or wahoo fish and the vegetable is usually corn or a potato with sometimes getting real vegetables like broccoli and beans. It’s very starchy and I am trying to run as much as I can to stay in shape. Thank goodness the larger meal is lunch, so I can walk off a little bit of lunch. The only thing I am really lacking are hot water showers, though two of the girls I live with have hot water in their bathroom that they allow me to use on occasion. Since it is a small town, we usually will go out and drink at a pier and then go and then go to this bar that plays music and has a pool table. We’ve befriended a couple of the locals here who are pretty chill.




Galapagos Islands Environment:
The thing I really like about Puerto Ayora is that it is right on the coast (as the name might suggest). This allows for me to walk down the road and see pelicans, sea lions, frigates, and assortment of finches, and the occasional blue-footed boobie! The Charles Darwin Research Center is right next to the town also, which is where you can see the iguanas and the tortoises including the famous Lonesome George tortoise. It’s a cool center if you are only staying in town, but there are better places to see the beautiful creatures and vegetation these islands provide. These are pictures of Yellow Warbler and a Black Finch, my two favorite birds I have seen yet:




Last Thursday, I went with the chicas on a day trip to the island of Floreana. There, I was able to snorkel with sea lions, sea turtles, colorful fish and a blue tipped fin shark (I think)! It was the first good snorkel trip I did as the first one was more or less a sham and I have to say that I am incredibly jealous of you people who can scuba dive as I can only imagine what I might see at deeper depths (word on the street is there are some hammer heads). It was such a blast, as the sea lions would literally swim right by you and even brush up on you, which happened to one of the girls I was with. We also had a chance to go up to the highlands of Floreana, which has a very cool layout. As you drive up the hill by the coast you see a more desert environment. However, the ecosystems and vegetation changed in almost an instant into one that was incredibly green and beautiful. We did a small hike to a tortoise park and then to a house that some crazy German family had made in the 1930’s by carving out rock.

On Friday we went up to the highlands of Santa Cruz, the island Puerto Ayora is located on. There we saw these massive craters that were formed as a result of a volcano about to erupt and then the land from underneath collapsing completely. We also went into a lava tunnel, which was really cool to see as you saw all these different colors on the walls of the cave that were created naturally. We went to a tortoise park that was incredibly wide open, green, and had lagoons in it. You could see a vast number of tortoises that varied also in shell shape. I was a much bigger fan of this park than the Darwin Research Center primarily because you could really get close to the tortoises and the tortoises had a lot of room to roam around. Since the tortoises are property of the Galapagos national Park, no one can fence in the tortoises, so they use barbed wire, which the tortoises can move through. There was one tortoise that was allowing us to get incredibly close to it without hiding in his shell. It was incredible and I was literally less than a foot away from this magnificent creature while it was eating. It actually almost went for my camera!
We went camping last Saturday night with some of the locals we have met and had such a blast. We camped in an area called Galapaterra, which had a great beach, relatively warm water, and some cool birds including a flamingo. It was nice to get out of town to enjoy good food and drinks with friends all under a clear night sky, which provided us with an incredible view of the stars. I was completely mesmerized and while not as nice as those in the mountains or in the Sinai desert, since I am by the equator, it is a completely different night sky. I spent a lot of that night just looking up at the sky and in deep thought about how big we make our relatively small problems.

The thing that I really like about the beaches here is that the entrance to the beach is usually at least 1km away from the coast. This forces you to have to walk the rest of the way through the beautiful trees and allows the beach to have an almost isolated feeling. My favorite beach that I have found is located in Tortuga Bay, which is just outside of Puerto Ayora. It is about a 30 min walk and roughly 2.5km away from the entrance. While it does feel like a never-ending walk, I like it because it makes the beach a lot less crowded. After about 30 minutes of walking you come out of the forest and see a beach that it more beautiful than anything I have seen in the US. It gets even better when you take your first step as you land in the softest sand imaginable. It is literally like walking through a beach of purely refined flour. The ocean waves are perfect for anybody who enjoys surfing, something I still need to try here. Down by the end of the beach is a pathway that leads to a nice lagoon, which is pretty warm and great to swim in. It is definitely a great place to take a girl.



Work I Have Done Here:
I spent the first week here working in organizing a library in Bellavista. I came in thinking the library was going to be a small one-story building with about 16 shelves of books. Well it is indeed in a small building, but it’s also in a tiny room with two shelves that still make it feel cramped in there. A lot of the books were dirty and completely worn and it was difficult to breathe in there. I organized all 2 shelves of books and just have to do some computer stuff and the library will be ready for the public. This is the library:


Last week I started my work in the hospital, which was what I had come here to do. I am working 24-hour shifts with a Chinese doctor who has lived in Ecuador for 30 years and speaks both English and Spanish. Being here in Ecuador definitely has its advantages, especially if you are not a doctor yet. I came in thinking I was going to be doing my EMT-B stuff and maybe learn how to start IV’s and take blood sugar readings. While I haven’t learned how to start an IV yet, I do feel like I have been thrown into the fire.

THE NEXT PART IS A STORY THAT ONE COULD PERCEIVE AS BEING TOO GRAPHIC. READER’S DISCRETION IS ADVISED. PLEASE SKIP DOWN IF YOU FEEL THIS COULD BE TOO GROSS FOR YOU.
On day one, a Canadian guy comes in with his big toe nail making a 45-degree angle with his big toe. The Doc comes up to me and says, “So Sam this guy clearly needs his big toe nail removed. You want to do it? All you have to do is pull it off with some pliers”

“Uhhhhhh. Sure. If all I have to do is pull it off,” I reply (remember it’s Ecuador).

“Oh but first you are going to need to inject this local anesthetic into three places,” he says.

“Well doc, this is day one and I’d rather watch you do it.”

“Oh come on Sam!” Then he turns to the Canadian guy. “What would you call him? A ummmm pussy?” Here I am, in the ER in another country, getting called a pussy because I would rather watch the doc show me how to give the injection. After about 5 minutes of conversing, I agree to try (I made sure the Canadian didn’t mind). The only injection I have any training with is an Epi-Pen and that’s an auto injector. Here I am with no clue on where to even begin in terms of injecting Lidocaine and being peer pressured into it. So of course I was nervous as heck. The last thing you want a patient to see is that you are nervous and shaking with a needle. I calmed myself down and went in for the injection.

“You are too shallow! Go deeper!” say the doctor. I tried again, but this time, I am so shallow that I only grazed the outer layer of skin and the needle came out. Dr. Hokwah finally took over and looks over at me and says, “You were too nervous. You can’t be so nervous. Just do.” Thanks doc! I never realized that I shouldn’t be nervous when giving someone an injection! I told him that I just wanted to see how he does it the first time and then the next time I would do it. Well I got my chance!
On day two, this guy came in needing stitches in his leg. Since I saw Dr. Hokwah do them last time, I told him I would give it a shot. He was great guide. Again, I had to first give the guy a local anesthetic and he guided my hands so that I could feel how deep I needed to go to give the Lidocaine. Then I grabbed the suture and listened to the doc give me the instructions. Although I got the string in, I was having trouble with the not and tying up the stitch. He finally took over for the first one. I saw him do the second one and told him I wanted another chance on the third one. He agreed and I mimicked his method to do a stitch solo. What an adrenaline rush! The doc approved and I felt victorious!




Continue here if you skipped ahead:

Aside from being in the ER I have had the opportunity to scrub into a surgery and a delivery of twins. The surgery was a gall bladder extraction. When I walked into the OR it literally looked like something that would have passed as an OR in the 1970’s. The automatic ventilator didn’t work, so the anesthesiologist had to bag him the entire time. The table the guy was one was rickety and one of the arms pieces actually broke off as they were putting the guy to sleep with this IV coming out. They also do not have a heated blade that can cauterize so the surgeon had tot tie up each individual blood vessel which took probably made the surgery last about at least an hour longer. Considering that what they have is the most basic of equipment, I felt like they did a great job.

Watching the delivery was also really cool. The amount of time it takes from head to baby being completely out is literally 3 seconds for each baby. I could not believe how fast it was. I also have to say that I am really really really sorry to all you women out there and what you have to go through. At least you have some cute babies at the end of the day! I then followed the doctors and the nurses and helped clean the babies. They each weighed like five pounds. I almost felt as if I was going to accidentally throw one, but I didn’t.

From what I can see at the hospital is that they do the best they can with what they have. The only thing that concerns me is how nobody wears gloves (except me, I had my nice BSI CE) and only some wear masks. There is usually only one doctor on call and at night he might be the only doctor in the entire hospital. This results in either me being left with a couple nurses “in charge” or just no one being there, which was the case during the delivery. The thing that I like that Dr. Hokwah is doing is having me go and talk to patients by myself. I have my nice Spark Chart Medical English/Spanish translation sheet, which has been like a bible for me, and I feel this has been the best way for me to improve on my Spanish. Dr. Hokwah and some of the nurses have been very helpful with helping me with paper work and I have really been enjoying it. Because of how long this post is, I won’t get into any more stories, but I am going to be trying to update this more frequently!

Quito: a Taste of What I'd Love to do in Another Time in My Life

Monday October 12, 8:40am CT, Airplane to Galapagos, Ecuador:

When I was flying from Bogota to Quito, I was thinking this was going to be a place I’d do a little sight seeing just in the city, get everything ready for my venture to the Galapagos, and if I was lucky, I would find a bar somewhere to watch the Broncos-Patriots game. Boy was I wrong!
From the moment we started descending, I was in awe of the scenery surrounding the capital of Ecuador. Quito’s airport is one of the highest in the world, so as you can imagine, I was kind of surprised to be flying so low to the mountains (I have never flown to Vail or Aspen so it was the first time I ever landed in the mountains). The mountains are also different than what you see in the Rockies. The vegetation is a lot more tropical being almost a hybrid between evergreen and jungle.




Completely opposite of the disastrous and unorganized customs experience in Bogota, Quito’s took literally 4 minutes to get through, but that could be due to the fact that I only had 12 other people on my flight. I walked outside seeing a guy with a sign saying The Secret Garden. I walked over and told him I had reserved the bus ride and that I was Sam Zuber. “Ehhh, sorry you are not on the list,” the driver stated. “I am here to pick up a Dan Ayetsbur. You make reservation?” I told him I had, and showed him my ticket with my flight number, which he used to track when it was landing. Seeing that I was the only who had made a reservation from that flight and that the other 12 people were not approaching him, he figured that I must be Dan. It was about a fifteen-minute drive to the hostel, which is located in the old quarter of Quito. For $8.00 a night, it was great although I only have this to compare with a slum in Eilat. The only bad part was that it was five stories and I was on floor four so lugging my bag up four flights of uneven stairs was definitely my workout for the day.

I got settled into my dorm room and decided that I wanted to explore part of the old town by myself while it was still light out since I was strongly recommended by the girl working at the reception desk not to go out by myself, unless I wanted to get mugged. I ran uphill towards the basilica where I was told you can get some of the best photos of the city, but unfortunately it was closed, so I decided to continue uphill via 1000 steps to reach a park that was located just outside of the old section. It was very serine and peaceful as I view the entire old section of Quito. Because of Quito’s layout on the top of a mountain, the city itself is incredibly narrow, but extremely long. After being there for an hour I headed back for dinner where I met some Brits, Aussies, Dutch, and one American. Since this was my first time really in a hostel and I was flying solo, I wasn’t really sure what to expect and was a little nervous and quiet. You realize though after talking to a couple people that basically everyone here is either by themselves or with one other person and that everyone’s story is different. We schmoozed for the next few hours until the hostel bar closed and we headed out into town. We started at this Irish pub called Finn McCools where to no surprise, I saw some Israelis. Apparently there is an entire hostel in Quito that is more or less for Israelis. I assume the reason is that the Israelis are not really accepted anywhere else they go as the word on the street is that many travelers and hostels aren’t too fond of them. It was good to spit out the Hebrew though especially cause my Spanish is still pretty basic. We stayed at the pub till around 2am and then went dancing at Tequila Sunrise with a couple of local girls for an hour before the place was practically bombarded with police officers. Fortunately for us, the Ecuadorian girls we had met knew just where to go when everything else closed and we ended up at this dance bar called Blue. This Cuban guy Pedro (who Shauna would have absolutely fallen in love with at first sight) we had met had joined us en-route and we danced to 80’s music and techno. Me and Pedro got into a dance off and I used my Adagio moves along with some things Robby taught me from home to at least be able to stand my ground. Watch out NYC! We were there till around 5:30 in the morning, stopped off for some late night/early morning food. We gave our cab driver a couple extra dollars to wait while we ate, but he decided to come in instead and play cards with the other cabbies leaving us to have to find a cab at 6 in the morning.

The next day aka four hours later, I woke up to find almost every person in the hostel decked out in yellow Ecuadorian Jerseys. Saturday was a big day for Quito and Ecuador as there was a qualifying match against Uruguay in Quito. Some of the people wanted to go and scalp off some tickets, but it was a little too pricy for me. So a couple of guys I met and I, decided to go and check out the city for a few hours before heading to a plaza to watch the game with a bunch of Ecuadorians who were unable to get tickets. Of course we were all starving so we went to get some food. As we were walking we see this guy holding a sign with a chefs hat and big slippers on his feet dancing in the middle of the street yelling at us to follow him to his restaurant. It should be noted that we were right in front of a different restaurant at the time so I’m sure the owners were not too pleased with this foolish looking man. We had all gotten to Quito the day before and could not believe how cheap food was here. You could get a quarter of a chicken, with soup, salad, rice, beans, and a drink for 2 dollars. Of course you get what you pay for and our soups had pieces of chicken in them that I had never seen in a soup before. Mine had a nice delicious foot in it. While strange for us, Ecuadorians eat the entire animal. The main course chicken though was actually really delicious. After lunch we went to the basilica, which was now open and climbed all the way to the top. One of the guys I was with, Rob, was scared out of his mind about climbing up these steep ladders, which I obviously found amusing (sorry Rob). The view was incredible as you basically had a 360 degree view of the entire city.
In the old quarter of the city, there is a hill with a huge statue of the Virgin Mary dressed as a guardian angel. The first thing I was told when I arrived at the hostel was you just don’t go there or it’s almost a guaranteed mugging. We figured since we were four guys we could cab it up pretty safely and we did. The statue was cool and the hill provided more views of a section of Quito that were unseen from the Basilica. It was cool to see these low clouds sweeping in and blanketing the hills next to Quito.

Around 3 we headed back to the hostel very quickly and then headed with some more people from the hostile to a plaza to watch the Ecuador v. Uruguay game. The plaza was entirely swarmed with yellow. There was an enormous screen running stream of virtual billboard like advertisements in the plaza and we were all excited to watch the game on it with the entire Ecuadorian population. As the starting lineups were mentioned, we saw the entire crowd walk toward the three patio bars where there were these small 20 inch plasma TV’s and concluded that the game was not being played on the big screen. It was funny to see because you could barely see the game from the back and a lot of the way the crowd reacted was from watching others. We decided only to watch the first half before going back to Finn McCools for the second half where we could actually see what was going on. It ended up being a disappointing 2-1 loss to Uruguay so the crowds were not going anywhere near as crazy as they would have had there been a victory. I stayed at the bar until around 10:30 and headed back home because it was erev simchat torah and I wanted to check out the Chabad House in Quito. Unfortunately, I started getting sleepy and my 20 min power nap lasted till 2am when one of my roommates Martin got back. We went downstairs and chilled for about another hour before going to sleep.
I woke up on Sunday around 9 since I wanted to get a head start on the day. Colin, Martin, Rob, and I decided we were going to meet up with one of the local girls, Tifa. Along with the rest of her family and family friends, we drove outside of Quito and into the Mountains. The scenery was majestic. After viewing the equator from a distance (both real and fake), we headed to a chair lift in the middle of the mountains. What an incredible drive. As I had mentioned before, these mountains are a lot different than the ones you see in Colorado with much greener vegetation. When we got to the chair lift, I got a little nervous. There were no towers to keep the cable up like in Colorado except at the beginning and end and the chairs were legit plastic patio chairs you see outside in restaurants with a seatbelt that would be loose on a 300 pound man, who would break the chair. Rob was absolutely freaking out. The view going up though was surreal and it was such a blast!

After the cable trip, we headed to the fake equator and took some pictures there. I asked Tifa to dance with me because lets face it, when am I ever going to do that again? It was a first for Tifa also so we Salsa’d a little before getting out of the park. After a long day, we ended up back in Quito at Mulligans where I was able to connect with some Americans and watch part of the Indianapolis vs. Tennessee game. I found out the BRONCOS HAD WON!!!!! And was overjoyed! It was definitely the best day of the trip so far and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we went to a place most tourists don’t go to outside of Quito so I have to thank Tifa and her family for letting us partake in such an amazing experience! We said our goodbyes and headed back to hostileft where I packed and got ready for my 7 am flight to the Galapagos Islands.

Bienvenidos!

October 9, 2009 9:37am CT, Bogota, Colombia: Welcome everyone to My Galapagosian Adventures. I have never been a blogger, but I feel if there is ever a time to start, it might as well be now. For those of you who can't tell from the title, I am heading down to the Galapagos Islands for the next three months. Through the organization Galapagos ICE (Immerse, Connect, Evolve), I am heading to the town of Puerto Ayora on the Island of Santa Cruz to volunteer in a local ER. In addition, I plan on finding other ways to help out the community such as helping construct a library (which I am doing for the first two weeks as I work on my Spanish).

So why the Galapagos? As my Mom clearly stated to me, I could have the same experience (volunteering in a local hospital in a poor Spanish speaking area) by driving less than 20 minutes in my car at home.


Well simply put, I wanted to do something that I would never get to do again. I had never been to South America before and the Galapagos Islands aren’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when I think of them either. When one thinks about the Galapagos Islands, they think of tortoises, finches, blue boobies, and Darwin. They are considered a national park in Ecuador with some of the most exquisite wildlife imaginable. I plan on spending my free time exploring everything these islands have to offer.

But that is not the primary reason why I am down here. While the Galapagos Islands are the ideal vacation spot for those who want to integrate with nature, the people who live there and the way they live is usually overshadowed. The people who live on the Galapagos are not native to the land like the Aborigines people of Australia. They are transplants from Ecuador, many of whom work for the hotels, restaurants, and shops geared at tourists. The luxury of working in the tourist industry along with the 11% unemployment rate has resulted in a fast increase in the number of people who are migrating from the mainland to the islands. Since the year 2000, almost 10,000 people have migrated to the Galapagos Islands raising the total population to 30,000 people. As a result, there is a tremendous amount of poverty though that exists on the island and the health care that is available is incredibly insufficient. Most people on the islands will get their annual checkups on the mainland, an $1,110 burden.

When I came across the Galapagos ICE website, I saw that their program offered me the chance to work in the local ER in Puerto Ayora. In addition, the program encourages its volunteers to work on some type of project while they are down there. Whether its bettering an after school program or looking at ways to improve the quality of drinking water, Galapagos ICE appears to have immersed itself into the daily lives of the people of Puerto Ayora. My plan is to assess the overall health of the residents of the four major towns on Santa Cruz and then report these findings to a health campaign called Ponte En Forma.

I have been incredibly fortunate to live in a very nice neighborhood just outside of Denver and my parents provided me with private schooling for all of my life. I’ve never gone hungry, never had to worry about the water I drink, always was able to see a doctor when I was sick, had ski lessons, went on golf trips with my Dad, and attended summer camp for eight years. I have the closest of home friends and have made even more friends through youth groups and college. My life so far has been a blessing and I know that most people in the world dream to have the opportunities that I have been provided. This is the reason why I am going. I want to immerse myself into the community of Puerto Ayora and improve the quality of life for its members. I want to develop a personal connection with the individuals I will be helping. Even if I can help better just one person’s life, the trip will be a success. I’ll admit, I could have gone to Ethiopia or Honduras, some of the poorest countries in the world, but Galapagos ICE seems to offer me the chance to contribute the most.

After 14 hours of travel, I finally got to my hotel for the night in Bogota, Columbia. Our plane must have landed with ten others because the customs line to get into Colombia was about ten times longer than any line I have seen to get into the US. I started talking to this guy named Ron who told me he ran track for the Virgin Islands and competed in the Olympics in 84, 88, and 96. I didn’t even know they had a team. Being in Bogota, I have to say that I have a lot of Spanish studying I need to do and that South America is completely different than Mexico (as in Cancun or Puerto Vallarta). I am happy to state though, that I am not completely lost in translation, so I guess my Rosetta Stone is working J. I am only in Bogota for the night and I leave tomorrow at noon for Quito, Ecuador. Because of my wonderful Jet Blue All You Can Jet Pass, I was able to get down to Bogota for an extra 28 bucks, which in turn saved me about 700 dollars of travel expenses. I definitely used this pass to the max! Since my parents love me and care for me so much, I promised them that I was just going to stay at the hotel in the morning rather than venture out into the city, although if there is a hotel sponsored tour, I’m going to try to convince them to let me go. I arrive around 3pm Central time in Quito, Ecuador where I am staying at a hostel that Jake Singer recommended to me for the next 3 nights. I am planning on going to Chabad on Saturday night for Simchat Torah, so I’m pretty excited about that. It appears the Chabad Rabbi doesn’t really know English that well, so I guess I’ll be working on my Spanbrew. I then depart Monday for the Galapagos where I will be until January 5. I know this was an incredibly long post and that my writing style just doesn’t compare to Mr. Qatar hero, but I hope that this blog will still encapsulate you and allow your mind to be in the Galapagos with me.

Chag Sameach!