8/9/10 & 8/10/10, Days 9 & 10: La Campaigna de Esterillization

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”.

8/8/10, Day 8: Progress Finally Made

Sunday, the day of rest, turned out to be the busiest day yet. I didn’t awake until 8:30 this morning because the barking dogs and car horns didn’t begin until then… Lew and I finally cornered Diego to do some real work today, not just talking about work like we usually do. We inventoried all the drugs and put together a kit of things needed for the spay/neuter campaign to begin tomorrow. This took a few hours, but by noon we were ready to go to PAE to pick up the last of the things needed and then head over to the municipal shelter for some last minute rearrangement of furniture.

We finally got the chance to get home to pick up Sandy for lunch around 2:30 and headed over for another local meal. I played it safe today and got chicken soup (again, a cilantro based soup with an entire chicken leg in it). Lew, on the other hand, let Diego order for him and ended up with cow foot soup. It didn’t look very appealing… I did find out what stomach soup was called though, caldo 31. Caldo means soup, but no one has any idea why the 31... I suggested maybe 31 parts of the cow that no one else in the world eats? Who knows. We also tried jugo naturale, which is a juice made of corn. Here everything is made of corn or has corn in it. The juice tasted like it was fermented and was just shy of becoming moonshine.

After lunch, Sandy, Ali, Emma, Manu, Danny, and I went to the pool. Between the pool, sauna, steam room, and the hot tub, we were there for hours. Manu, Sandy, and I swam and played for a significant portion of the time.

Upon leaving, we grabbed a glass of morocho (again, this is corn, but it tastes like cornbread in a drink) and headed to the pizzeria to pick up vegan pizzas for the arrival of the vegan americans who were recruited to help with the campaign. We quickly ate some pizza also, but ours was a real pizza with cheese.

8/7/10, Day 7: LLanganates National Park

Today is Saturday, but it began like every other day except for the fact that we got to have breakfast this morning. Lew and I headed over to PAE as usual and worked on all the animals for the morning. Sandy came to pick me up and we, along with Diego’s brother Dani and his family (Ali, Manu, and Emma), headed up the mountainside for a day at the national park.

In the car, Sandy informs me that we are going to make a BBQ lunch and that they have never done it before. Do I know how? Of course I do, but not with the things they have brought for me to start a fire at 14,000 ft in the wind, rain, and below freezing cold. They give me straight black carbon (like our charcoal, but no lighter fluid), a few drops of gas, and some tiny little matches that make matchbook matches look like giant brutes. There is no small grill for the charcoal, so it lays on the ground between two logs we found. An oven rack (from Sandy’s new oven) bridges the logs for food. It took us 2 hours to get the fire going enough to cook on and even then it was pretty weak. Finally, around 4:30 pm (we started making our fire around 1:30), we get to eat. We cooked potatoes (cut in half over the fire), chorizo sausage, small steaks, and a huge slice of pork fat. We ended up eating the potatoes raw, due to the lack of heat put out by the fire… it was fairly comical.

The park was pretty spectacular. It offers wonderful views of the valley below and has several large lakes. There are streams and waterfalls, and the mountain ranges here are nothing like those in California or Colorado. These are lush, green, and extremely high elevation. We spent most of our time above 13,000ft, and I could feel it in my energy level as we hiked around after the meal. Their parks are not like ours… there is a fee, but that is the only similarity. There are many abandoned houses and no “real” roads. The roads we drove would be considered primitive at best in the US. Many people have food animals that roam in the park and they walk the 10 miles straight uphill from town to tend to them on a daily basis.

Around 6:00 the fog and rain roll in and we decide to get going, but we can’t find Dani. Finally someone spots him fishing down at the lake and it takes another 30 minutes to get him back to the car. He caught 2 fish and had them in his pocket when he returned. We slowly made our way back down the mountain and headed home for the night.

8/6/10, Day 6: Banos

Much to my surprise, I wake up around 6:30 am and cannot go back to bed. The girls have invited me to go to Banos today and I need to tell Diego before he gets too far into the day’s plans. Lew had told me the night before that “sleep was overrated,” so I assumed he was already up when I headed out of my room for a shower. I get ready for the day and walk over to Diego’s apartment to see what is going on. At 7:15 I end up waking him up, even though he has an 8am meeting across town. We chat a bit and then I let him finish his morning preparations.

Lew finally wakes up around 8:30 and once he gets ready for the morning we inventory all the drugs for the spay/neuter campaign. At 9, we head to the shelter for our daily duties, which are now becoming part of my routine. Sandy comes to pick us up around 12 and we head into the downtown area of the city to pick up an employee of the HIS (humane shelter international) from Washington DC. She is here to see if PAE is a potential recipient of humane shelter funds. We all go to lunch and discuss the possible venture over smoked pork and mote (corn), one of the best local food meals yet.

On the way back to the PAE shelter from lunch, the girls call and tell me that they are coming to pick me up for a trip to Banos. Banos is a town built at the base of a volcano. It is a very nice area that is hugely populated by tourists. Banos is called banos because there are baths filled with hot water warmed by the volcano. The volcano had an eruption just 2 years ago and the devastation can still be seen on the hillside. However, the place is wonderfully beautiful. It is lush and green and mountainous. We drive through the town and go to the zoo first. The first zoo we enter (for free I might add because the girls talk the front boy into letting us in) consists of many types of boa constrictors, anacondas, and vipers, along with some fish. The second zoo (also free, thank you girls!) had many species of monkeys and birds, but the real attraction was the condors. These are the biggest birds I have seen in real life, they were sleeping, but still totally awesome.

After the zoo visits, we take the drive straight up the mountainside to one of the most coveted resorts in the area. The evening darkness and fog roll in as we walk to the resort’s restaurant for dinner. The restaurant has a full glass panel at the front of the room that affords an absolutely spectacular view of the city below (~3,000 ft below). In the US, this restaurant would be considered 5 star due to the ambience, view, and foreign cuisine. We eat a truly american dinner (I had a ham and swiss sandwich that was presented like it was an expensive steak dinner) and discuss the plans for the evening.

We decide to drive back down to Banos and check out the night life. After walking the city for a while, we pick a club and enter. We walk straight through the discotech and it appears that we are leaving through the back when I realize it is a tiki bar… This is the coolest bar I have ever been to. It has a massive fire pit directly in the middle and all sorts of live palm trees and tree-house looking things everywhere. I wish that we could pull off one of these in the states. We sit for a beer and chat, and I decide that I really enjoy the company of my new friends. I wish that I would have a little more time here to spend with them…

After a beer and lots of pictures, we all pile back into the car and make the hour journey home. Best day so far…

8/5/10, Day 5: Ladie’s Night

I awake this morning at what I think is 8am, but because my cell phone has no satellite connection, the time is totally messed up and it is actually only 5:30. I realize this when I turn on the computer to check my morning emails. So, I go back to bed until 8, get another warm shower (yay!), and head over to the shelter.

When I arrive, there is no one in the house or outside. I walk back to the surgical suite/grooming salon and start doing dishes from the night before so that the place is clean to begin the day. I soon realize that Dr. Lew has been sent to spend the day with me and I am grateful. Dr. Lew is a friend of Diego’s, and was actually the best man in his wedding. Lew is from Lake County, just northwest of Chicago and is an American. He’s 75 and has been practicing veterinary medicine for 40 years. I am very happy to have him here… he takes the burden of decision making off my shoulders and is happy to help me do whatever my duties are for the day.

We work on the dogs for the morning and then Sandy comes to pick us up for another lunch of local food. This one was a bit scary, and I can’t pronounce the name or even come close to spelling it. It was soup made with 3 parts of the ruminant stomach (rumen, reticulum, omasum) and spleen of what I can only assume used to be a cow??? No clue. It was heavily seasoned with cilantro, and if any of you know me, cilantro tastes strongly like Palmolive dish soap smells. I have to say this is probably the worst food I have tried so far, but I get the feeling I may eventually try something even less edible…

Sandy brings Lew and I back to the shelter and we spend another few hours watching telenovela (Spanish soap operas) before Diego shows up. Thankfully he got there earlier than usual, around 6pm, and we end up being able to eat dinner shortly thereafter. Because Lew is an older American and has some stomach issues, Diego allows him to pick where we eat dinner and we have lasagna. It was a welcome change from the local food.

While at dinner, Diego received a call from Gonza insisting that I come out for a “ladies night.” I finish dinner quickly and run out of the restaurant in time to meet the girls. I initially thought we would go to a discotech, but instead the evening consisted of drinking beers in the car… something that is not frowned upon in the least bit here. The girls all drink pilsner beer and love the Black Eyed Peas. Everyone is wearing a scrunchie hairtie and an aeropostale sweatshirt (except me). I think I missed the memo. We stopped along the roadside to meet up with some of their friends and a one of the guys approached the car. All of the sudden I hear the Backstreet Boys “I want it that way” coming from his cell phone and I busted out laughing. They all inquire on what is so funny, so I explain to them that the Backstreet Boys are not acceptable for a grown man to have his ring tone set to in the US. Much more laughter ensues and I’m pretty sure the guy no longer wants to be my friend… oops! Glad to know that I can even intimidate men in a culture not even remotely similar to my own.

After a few hours the girls bring me home and we say goodbye for the night. I’m happy to have met such good friends so quickly, they’re already asking me when I will return.

8/4/10, Day 4: Blood Soup, Llapingachos, and French Fries

Today I start to fall into a routine. I am delighted to find that I have a hot shower this morning and it gives me hope that today will be better than yesterday. I eat my breakfast bar and head over to PAE (Protection Animal Ecuador, the shelter in which I am working) with a list of things to accomplish for the morning. Diego has now entrusted me with the lab work, some of his shelter paperwork (which I think is funny, because I don’t speak Spanish well), and the treatment of all the sick animals. He is busy working with the municipality to set up a bona fide shelter for the city, the first ever in Ecuador.

Most of my morning is spent giving injections and cleaning wounds, and before I know it, it is time to meet Sandy for lunch. She decided the night before that she would take me downtown to the central market for traditional food from Ambato. We get yaguarlocre (blood soup that contains sheep blood, potatoes, avocado, bone marrow, and onion), llapingachos (a sort of fried potato pancake), and naranjillo juice (which is somewhat like an orange, but sweeter). Of course the llapingachos were served with a fried egg on top, which I am learning is a staple around here. We leave the market and wander the streets for a bit, making space for the helado (ice cream) that I have to try.

I finally make it back to the shelter around 4pm and prepare myself for more work to be done. The rest of the day goes by very quickly, but of course I screw up in surgery around 7pm and prolong the evening even more. Thankfully, when I finish with Diego in surgery, Maygora and Margherita were at the shelter and invited me to go have a dinner of French fries with them. We go to a restaurant called “Choko” where they order a giant plate of ruffles potato chips smothered with ketchup, mustard, mayo, and mozzarella cheese. I got a small bowl of fries and returned home happy. Lets hope the rest of the days run as smoothly as this!

8/3/10, Day 3: una dia de muerte o la dia del Diablo)

It is 7:30 when I awake and realize that everyone is already gone for the day. I attempt a cold shower and dry off with a fleece hoody that I had packed for cold evenings (still no towel). When I come outside it looks like rain and the weather cannot be warmer than 60. I get myself together and head over to the shelter to begin the morning rounds.

When I arrive Terre has just realized that her poodle is deceased. She is crying and not in the mood to try to communicate with me. So, I go into the surgical area to check on the other sick dog that spent the night there. Incidentally, the dog belongs to the two sisters that also volunteer at the shelter. The dog feels cool to the touch and hasn’t urinated despite the massive amount of fluids being given. Her CRT is greater than 2 seconds and I become concerned about her. The girls try to get her to move, and she takes 2 steps, collapses on the floor, and dies right at my feet. It was horrible. More crying ensued, but because I don’t speak Spanish, I find the entire process of consoling my new friends very difficult. Instead, I keep myself busy doing a necropsy and taking care of the other animals.

I also met another veterinarian today, her name is Veronica, and she is more like a tech than a veterinarian. She was schooled at the university in Ambato and I am beginning to learn that not all veterinarians are created equal. I find myself teaching her things that I have learned, and she is very receptive. I hope we can help one another learn more.

Despite their recent tragedy, the sisters again take me to lunch. Their younger sister and friend (Margherita) join us. Margherita is pretty cool, she loves to speak English (really just loves the USA) and is funny. She’s completely decked out in Aeropostale, smells of something from Victoria’s Secret, and her cell phone ring tone is Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girl. Let’s just say that she is going to make my life here a little more colorful. Today’s lunch was ceviche, a cold tomato based soup with shrimp and onions. I have to say this was not one of the better meals I have had so far… and the girls ended up finishing it for me.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning and researching the death of the dog this morning. As the day proceeded, another dog was euthanized due to being hit by a car. Most of the day is spent without Diego’s help, so I am left to make some uncomfortable decisions while he is gone. The day ends with 2 more spays and Maygora being attacked by a French poodle that caused puncture wounds to her face and hand. I must say that I am very grateful for this day to end. I attempt to walk the two blocks home from the shelter, but am verbally assaulted (in Spanish, of course) by another veterinarian as I try to leave. The only thing I get out of the one-sided conversation is “Carrie, NO!” Which leads me to believe that I am not to walk home alone in the dark. So, Terre loads me into her car and drives me the minute long journey home.

Upon arrival, I change clothes and decide to bother Sandy to help me access the internet. She is more than willing and invites me to join them for dinner of corn, goat cheese, pineapple juice, and Domino’s Pizza breadsticks. That’s right folks, I just had Domino’s Pizza breadsticks with dinner in Ecuador.