8/9/10, Day 9: Chaos Ensues
The prior night Diego told me to be ready to go at 7:30am… I awoke at 6:45am to knocking at my door and “VAMOS! Carrie VAMOS!” spoken by a voice that I don’t recognize. Apparently over the night Diego had a friend come into town and they decided they needed me at the campaign earlier than 8. I literally rolled out of bed, put scrubs on, and was hurled (by Diego’s driving) across the city to the shelter for the spay/neuter campaign.
The campaign staff was mind-boggling, I never expected so many Americans to come help with surgery in Ecuador. But, we had a staff of almost 15 Americans and another 20 Ecuadorians. The Americans were well organized and have worked together previously on Animal Balance projects. Liz, their tech, is kind of a Nazi, and all of the Ecuadorians feared her. Personally, I respect her, she knows how to get stuff done (she’s just like my mom) Anyhow, they decide I am going to perform tech work for 2 surgeons and I start inducing dogs and cats to meet the surgical demand.
Within the first four hours of opening, we had 167 surgeries lined up. We drew the cutoff point at 84 surgeries today and told the others to come back tomorrow. Holy cow, I never expected so many people so fast. There were TV crews, newspaper reporters, and government officials everywhere watching us work. Every time I turned around there was a different person watching me or taking my picture. I’m not going to lie, it was a little daunting. I was intubating, putting in IV catheters, monitoring anesthesia, and trying not to kill all my patients in the middle of it all.
By the time surgery was done it was 7pm and we all decided to meet at 8:30pm in downtown Ambato for dinner at a local restaurant. Everyone was so exhausted that we didn’t stay long and I’m finally home settling in for the night.
8/10/10, Day 10: Campaign Day 2
This morning was MUCH more organized than the last. We got up at the time Diego told us, actually ate breakfast, and headed out to the shelter. They gave me a real veterinary technician to work with today, so induction and anesthesia ran very smoothly… No more running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Her name was Cindy and she is from Fairfax, Virginia. She runs a shelter herself and is part of the Animal Balance program that does spay/neuter campaigns all over the world. Most of the Americans that joined us for the campaign were also part of that program and they invited me to join them from their next trip. It was an honor, it means I was actually very useful to them. I was a little flattered J
87 surgeries later it was 6:30pm and time for me to leave Ambato. The bus picked me up on the side of the road and I headed into Quito, Ecuador’s capital. A new friend Gabi offered for me to stay with her parents for the night so that I would be close to the airport for my flight very early in the morning. They were waiting at the window for me when I arrived and were extremely hospitable. Neither of them spoke English, but they made me dinner, got me a shower, and put me to bed anyway. They were some of the nicest people on my trip and smiled a lot. We joked even though we only partially understood one-another, but both parents gave me a huge hug before bed and just kept saying “we happy”.
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