Attending Church in Cuenca

We have been attending an Adventist church for the past month. It is located on Mariscal Lamar, smack dab in the center of a business district. During the week, when the church doors are closed, it looks like a storefront. Sabbath morning the doors are flung open, and remain that way. The sound of singing and preaching fill the avenue.

This is no storefront, but a lovely tiled iglesia that holds 200 plus members. Every Sabbath the pews have been filled. The platform is unique, and resembles the tomb Christ arose from! In front of the "tomb" are large vases filled every week with beautiful fresh flowers.

We were told there are four Adventist churches in Cuenca. We have yet to meet the pastor, but have enjoyed the fire and passion of the lay preachers we heard. Keep in mind that we are not yet fluent in Spanish. Some preachers project the scripture on the screen, and we look them up in our English bible. It makes it much easier to follow along and understand what's being said. I bring pen and paper with me and jot down words I don't understand and look them up when I get home. This not only increases our understanding of the message, but helps improve our vocabulary.

We've noticed the deacons all dress in orange vests. Like in the States, they take up the collection, and at the end of the service, dismiss us by rows, greeting us warmly with a "Feliz Sabado".

Last Sabbath the scriptures were not projected on the screen. Because the books of the Bible sound so very different in Spanish, I was having a hard time looking them up and following along. A sweet lady sitting next to us, and her daughter behind her, seeing our struggle, looked up the scriptures, handed us their Spanish bible, and helped us find them in our English bible. One of the elders on the platform this week used to live in the States, and returned with his young family to his beloved Cuenca approximately two years ago. Fabian has three children. We met his precocious daughter Genesis, 9 years old. She speaks perfect English. They invited us to return at 4:30pm for the weekly youth program. We had to decline this week because we were helping Kenny, but look forward to visiting next week.

I mentioned to Fabian I was going to look for tabs for my Bible with the books in Spanish. He insisted that he would take care of that for me and bring them next Sabbath. He knows where to get them. We thought that was very thoughtful and generous.

God's people are scattered all over this earth, and it's wonderful to feel like "home" no matter where you are!

Medical Care in Cuenca

It's been a while since I've blogged. We've been caring for our friend Kenny who had a double knee replacement. The total cost for his two new knees, four day hospital stay, meds, and physician fee.......$8600! That's right, his wonderful doctor even told him if he pays directly to the manufacturer for his knees, he can save $450! When was the last time your doctor or hospital offered you the opportunity to save some money?! If Ken had the procedure in Hawaii, it would have cost $66,000. To say his insurance provider was happy with his decision to have it done in Cuenca is an understatement.

The procedure was done at a new, clean modern hospital called Mt. Sinai. It appears to be a part of Humana. Kenny's room was very large with a comfortable futon and.....monogrammed sheets. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. Kenny's doctor agreed to allow the staff, after administering meds, to leave the empty bottles with Kenny so he could research them on line and compare them to their English equivalent. The surgeon had done 150 knee replacements prior to Kenny's. He provided excellent post operative care. Physicians here do most of the hands on after care. Not only did he personally dress Kenny's knees post op, he also put on and changed his thigh high compression hose.

Kenny was on the operating table for 6.5 hours. To his surprise, he was given spinal anesthesia instead of general. He was awake and alert post op, and feeling great. His recovery was much more rapid in the absence of general anesthesia.

Two days prior to surgery, they allowed Kenny to donate a pint of his blood in the event he might need it. I was surprised they allowed that so close to surgery. Interestingly, because there are so many clinics and hospitals in Cuenca, blood is only allowed to be stored at the Red Cross. We had to give the surgeon our phone number in the event he needed us to pick up the blood and bring it to the hospital. Approximately 3 hours in to surgery, and immediately after we walked out of the gym, we got the call. We hurried to the Red Cross, I signed the register after giving them Kenny's blood donation receipt, and walked out with a little black plastic bag holding his blood. We took a cab to the hospital, found a nurse, and she gave the blood to the surgeon in the OR! Quite an interesting experience. The rationale for not storing blood at medical facilities is because there are so many, the amount of blood stored would be insufficient at each site for their needs. Only the few designated trauma sites in Cuenca have some excess on hand. I was very pleased to learn that, as that was a concern of mine.

Post operatively, Kenny is doing well. We had to go to a medical supply pharmacy and buy him a walker and bring it to his room so he could begin therapy. No huge hospital mark up here. As a matter of fact, before leaving the hospital, Kenny received a very detailed itemized bill. The average cost of one pill, ten cents. Lunch, two dollars and fifty cents.

Kenny is now rehabing at home with a physical therapist that sees him about 5 times per week. Her hourly cost? Fifteen dollars.

Ken and I were very impressed with our first close up look at medical care in Cuenca.

Seeing the Sights

We decided it was time to visit some of the well known sights outside of Cuenca. With our friend Juan in the driver's seat, we took off to the beautiful countryside to explore one of Ecuador's best known orchid farms. There are over 4000 species of orchids worldwide, with over 2500 raised at this beautiful facility.

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The farm was located in a gorgeous valley. We were able to take a tour, and experience the incredible beauty of these versatile flowers. The flowers are first started from seeds that are placed in recycled liquor and coke bottles!

We saw a large variety of flowers and a beautifully landscaped garden area with orchids so tiny, you almost need a microscope to see them. We also spotted flowers that looked like spiders. The fragrances were wonderful!

We couldn't resist and just had to buy an orchid for our covered terrazza! We continued on to Chordela, known for it's numerous silver shops. It's also a quaint village with lots of parks, and a river running through it.

Juan's family owns a vacation home in Chordela, and has fond memories of week-ends and vacations here. We visited the mercado in town, an indoor market with row after row of produce on one side of the ground floor. Across the room were a variety of stands selling blended fresh fruit drinks. Juan bought us a drink blended with fresh coconut milk that was absolutely delicious! Coconuts are plentiful in Ecuador, and in Cuenca you frequently see roadside vendors selling fresh cut pieces. There were also booths with large containers of fresh grains for sale in bulk. Grains, fruits and vegetables are very inexpensive and are sold at the mercado by the indigenous Indians.

The second level was primarily different types of raw and cooked meats. One section is pollo (chicken), another carne (beef), last but not least were whole, roasted pigs (jamon). Pork is the most popular meat in the Andes mountains.

Since we were in town on Friday, we were able to take advantage of another outside mercado next to the cathedral set up once a week. Part of the purpose of our journey was to purchase plants to landscape our two terrazas. We hit the jackpot! Ken had great fun bargaining with the vendors! It's expected, and something Ken loves to do. I just stand back and let him go, marveling how well he communicates in his very broken Spanish and sign language! In a matter of minutes he has the vendors laughing, as they cave in to his offer. Sometimes he drives such a hard bargain, the other vendors crowd around just to watch this big gringo in action to see who wins the tug of war. It's all great fun with lots of smiles.

With Juan's car loaded with plants, we happily head home, enjoying the wondrous beauty that is Ecuador.