More of Ecuador

Here are just a few pictures from our medical mission in Ecuador. I apologize, but they are in backwards order! Enjoy!

The patients are brought here to recover after surgery. Only some of them are able to go home with some medication, and the ones that do get medication only take home a few tylenol. Each guardian of the patient that received the medication was always wide-eyed with gratefulness.

Here is a picture of Dr. Rob Ferguson and Shane in one of many surgeries. In this surgical case they were fixing a deformed hand. Their operating room had no windows, no air conditioning, and no working equipment (including tables). When you walked into the room it looked misty from the amount of humidity that filled it.

These are the doors to the operating rooms. Every door in the hospital looked very similar to this! From the inside of the doors bunches of peeking eyes could always be seen through the broken glass.

The little girl wearing pink pants (Derineya) was able to have surgery done on her cleft palate during the medical mission in 2009. She and her family were at the hospital all week giving love to families there. One afternoon Derineya came searching for me in the hospital...once she found me she took my hand and led me outside. She then pointed to a drawing done with the sidewalk chalk I had given her. It was a big heart and inside it she had written, "KENZIE, LOVE YOU". Her mother said in Spanish that it had taken her all afternoon to figure out how to say it in English. Words can't explain how that made me feel!

On the first day at the hospital, hundreds of patients line up outdoors waiting to be seen by our team of doctors. This picture is taken outside the door to the clinic with one of our anesthesiologists (Dr. Butch Parker) walking out. Notice how tiny all of the Ecuadorians are!

We were so ready to get to work! This was our first day, getting ready to head to the hospital.

Our first few days we spent in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Quito actually marks the center of the world, and here Shane and I are standing right on the Equator! It really was amazing.

This is outside one of the cathedrals in Quito. All of these people are homeless, waiting for food from the church.

Outside the presidential palace we came across this sweet little fellow! We asked for a picture and he willingly said yes :) Again, look how little he is!

On one of the days in Ecuador we took a day trip to a city in Otavalo with our friends, Dr Rob Ferguson and his wife Andrea, and also Heidi and her husband Dr Butch Parker.

Otavalo presents a big market every Saturday and Sunday. They sell a ton of homemade goods like necklaces made from acai seeds (above), carved gourds, weaved bags, wooden nativities, vegetables, meat, etc.

This was our view outside the window of our hotel room in Quito. Check out that traffic!

We made it to Ecuador! This was taken right as we arrived at our hotel in Quito at about 1 in the morning. We had to take those two blue bins which were stuffed with medical supplies with us on the airplane.

Thank you for your prayers while we were in Ecuador! We miss it and can't wait to go back.