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454 SOUTH SERVICE RD.W. OAKVILLE, ON QEW/403 yW ecroft Rd. pS eers Rd. Do rv al D r. 4t h Li ne S.Service Rd.W HOT TUB BLOWOUT! JULY 29-AUGUST 7 www.deckstore.ca 905.337.7707 Many models to choose from. Canadian owned MAAX Spas has teamed up with The Deck Store to bring you this limited time truckload sales event. $ While supplies last! Features: s 0ERSON s *ETS s-0 3TEREO s 3TAINLES 3TEEL *ETS s .ECK "LASTER s ,%$ ,IGHTS 3TAR 0KG s 7ATERFALL s 0UMP (P s &ULLY BACKED BY -!!8 3PAS NATIONWIDE WARRANTY -ARKET 0RICE 2ETAIL 0RICE %VENT 0RICE Save $1000s on the hot tub of your dreams YOU SAVE$3394 9 Th u rsd ay, A u g u st 4, 2011 O A K V ILLE B E A V E R w w w .in sid eH A LTO N .co m By Nathan Howes OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Humility. Quality of life. Connection. Three of the things Catrina Ziesman experi- enced when she spent almost seven months in Ecuador. Ziesman shared her adventures in the South American country to members of the Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar (RCOT) Thursday at the Otello's Banquet & Conference Centre. One of the reasons why I chose Ecuador to do my work in is because it is such a diverse country. Its rich in natural resources (and) Im fascinated by the culture (and) by the language, said Ziesman. Ziesman, a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) intern, left for Ecuador last August and returned in March. She spent her time working with the Club Rotario Guayaquil in Ecuador in areas of health educa- tion, fundraising and teaching English to eco- nomically poor children and adults. One of the projects she was involved with was called Operation Walk Virginia, working as a translator and mediator between a staff of American doctors, Ecuadorian nurses and patients. In one week, the team performed 40 successful prosthetic limb replacement surger- ies for economically poor individuals from the outskirts of Guayaquil. My job was pretty much running around g p p p p ytranslatin ost-o and re-o without an medical training. So I have no health back- ground, but I was asked to administer medica- tions, said Ziesman. The sad part is a lot of my job in that week they were there was to turn away thousands of people lining up at the hospi- tal to get these surgeries. That was emotional. The people who did get chosen, it really p yshows the im act that it reall had on each and every person, she added. Ziesman said one of her memorable experi- ences was working at the Manuel Galecio Asilo Orphanage, where she spent a week teaching English to 99 young female residents and saw the impact that role modeling has upon young children. p gThe most im ortant thin to know about this orphanage is that all of the children had parents, (but) the parents were too poor to take care of them, so they had to choose one child in a family of 10 that they would give up, said Ziesman. It was an incredible group of one- year-olds all the way up to teenagers. It gives you an idea of the poverty there. She also had the chance to work at Junta de Beneficencias Hospital de los Ni a childrens hospital, where she worked alongside a group of surgeons from the U.S. who performed heart surgeries for poverty-stricken children under the age of 15. The relationships that I was able to create with the patients are ones that I will value indefinitely, said Ziesman. One of the most authentic experiences she had in Ecuador was the cuisine, she said. Though Ziesman never tried them, its national dish is cuy, which is the meat of a guinea pig, and apparently tastes like chicken, and is served to you on a barbecue, she added. The reason they are so popular is because theyre sustainable when youre poor and live on a farm, you can raise hundreds of guinea pigs or any other type of stock, said Ziesman. Ziesman said she hopes to go back in November for another project. The connections that I made there and the work that the rotary club does there that makes it so vast and it touches everybody. Going there and teaching every one of these individuals, I connected with each of them. CIDA intern home from adventure in Ecuador TRANSLATOR AND MEDIATOR: Guest speaker Catrina Ziesman, a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) intern, speaks about her Ecuadorian Experience at a Rotary Club of Oakville meeting at Otello's Banquet & Conference Centre. MICHAEL IVANIN / OAKVILLE BEAVER