Riobamba

Well we made it to Riobamba. It was a very LONG trip. The students that started in Maine got in a Van around 3:30. We all met up in Boston and headed to Quito via Atlanta. There was a delay in Boston, so we didn´t have much time in Atlanta but to run to the next plane. When we arrived in Quito it was close to 11pm then onto a bus for a 4 hour drive that was interupted by a brief stop to Dr Lance Evans WALDOS Clinic. It is a work in progress, but it is coming together beautifully! Martha, our host, greeted us at about 3am and we all passed out! We were also joined by 3 new friends that work w/a nonprofit out of Quito. Blanca (see our last year´s blog, she was the patient with thyroid cancer) has joined us for the next two weeks with her little girl!



Sunday - we got up for 10am and met w/Jonathan, a local physician, and Blanca (our former patient and newest patient advocate). We are working hard to come together and achieve HUVSYAL´s goals as well as accomplish MEDLIFE´s goals. Sarah, Mario and Gabe from Quito spent the day with us. It was awesome sharing stories and learning from each other.

After a delicious lunch by Martha we went to Guano (a small ¨leather¨town) for a little tourism.
Picture below is most of the group on the mountainside.




Then back to Martha´s for packing and organizing for tomorrow´s first village trip.
The group really worked like a team!
At supper we had Pizza and what would a pizza party be without a pizza eating contest-
Juan, Tim, and Craig ....... and the winner is CRAIG at 14 slices. Juan and Tim gave him a good fight by each eating 10 slices!

As I´m finishing this post, I had a minute to talk to Nick (our founder) who is studying excessively for his Medical School Midterms! We all sending him our ¨smart¨thoughts!!

Lots more to say tomorrow
Terry