HISTORIAS de PERSONAS y pacientes

In his youth, he experienced the craze of disco music and nightclubs when John Travolta was the person every young person wanted to emulate. He wasn't a brilliant student, but he was a good basketball player and later a good tennis player, which led him to found the Esmeraldas Tennis Club. He started working at the Housing Bank while studying journalism at Vargas Torres University. Besides being considered one of the most attractive and sexy young men in the city of Esmeraldas, girls sought him out for his discretion. He was never heard talking about other people, religion, politics, or soccer; he only laughed at whatever jokes his friends had. He also took them to parties and nightclubs, paid for their outings, and even gave them gifts without expecting anything in return. He was often the groomsman at their birthday parties, or the person to whom the parents of these girls entrusted their daughters when they went to parties or nightclubs, knowing he would bring them back safe and...

NN was born in Cabo San Francisco, and her mother was the healer, the director of the children's center, and the one who led the community in the village. When the rural doctor and his wife arrived in the village, she became his assistant, since the nurse and the doctor didn't get along. That nurse thought she owned the Ministry of Health center and believed that the doctors had to do what she told them. Furthermore, she saw patients in a building located in the village and didn't want to work in the new health center, which had been built in 1980, somewhat distant from the village, at the north entrance. It had no water, electricity, sewage system, or equipment. The new doctor turned the health center into his home, as it had living quarters for the doctor, and his office was in another part of the building. The team provided electricity, first from a noisy generator, and then from the village generator, which provided electricity for 3 hours each day. The water was collec...

It was 2004 when NN, a British gentleman, brought more than 60 students between the ages of 15 and 18 to practice Spanish and live in the Ecuadorian Amazon. This was possible because NN had founded a foundation with Ecuadorian citizens and farmers to promote smart tourism in Ecuador. Smart tourism was a somewhat vague concept at the time, but it was understood as traveling to another country to learn, teach, and help others. Ecuador, then one of the cheapest countries in Latin America, had become a favorite destination for learning Spanish, along with Guatemala and Bolivia, since the students, who were also backpackers, had to stay for at least six weeks to learn Spanish to an intermediate level. The foundation created by NN offered students accommodation in Quito in an apartment for students and volunteers, with rooms with private bathrooms, a shared kitchen, dining room, and living room, an internet café, and classrooms for one-on-one learning (one teacher per student). This allowed ...