well i am feeling better today and i am even mobile. a few interesting things i failed to mention about being in the hospital: one i was there for only45 minutes and i didnt wait in a line or a waiting room. two, there was only one doctor working in the emergency room of one of the largest hospitals in ecuador. and three when i walked out of the hospital medication and care only cost $40. i think in the states my little stay would have been well over $200. sunday evening i was really missing some american food so i asked my host brother and sister to take me to mcdonalds. there are a lot of american fast food resturants here in ecuador but only mcdonalds has the same menu here as it does in the states. so i went and ordered the classic cheesburger, fries and coke. before hand i was so excited it was pathetic. later that night jack called me and told me that everyone from afs had to be downtown the next morning to do something called "global education." so i went to that expecting that i would get to sit in the airconditioned afs office for a few hours talking about the world. i was wrong. instead we were lead around town by a geography teacher (luis) who had been volunteering with the organization for years. we first went to a catholoc charities organization which makes houses for the poor. i had mixed feelings about this organization because they will make a house for any family that needs it but after the house is built they do nothing else. these families need a lot of help and in my opinion a house is only the start. then we saw the line of people who needed a house and it was about a hundred people strong. the people who lead us around the compound then said that the seven of us could pay $20 to build a house on some saturday. most people in the group were really inthusiastic and it sounds good so i think that might happen soon. the next place we visited was an organization that works with the black afroecudoriano communities in guayaquil. they did a multitud of things involving helping families but mostly the director told us about his mission of enhancing an afro identity in ecuador. it was interesting stuff. race relations arent quite as volitile here in ecuador as they are in the states but there is definatly a divide. for instace many rich people who i have met are taller and blonder than people with less. the afro population isnt segregated but like i say there is definatly a cultural difference. we had lunch at a peculiar vegitarian resturaunt but not before seeing a group of communists rallying in front of a french bank-im not quite sure what they were after. the final thing we did was talk about ecuador with our afs host. we talked about an insiders history of ecuador, politics, religion, wealth and then we talked about traveling in ecuador and where to go and what to see. it was a very interesting day but after it was all done i needed an ice pack. today i plan to see a doctor and have her okay me to work tommorow because i think im getting cabin fever hanging out here so much. o yeah and dad, have i ever been one for spelling things correctly.
-mark