We have arrived back in Guayaquil as of 6 am...its hot and we miss Pimampiro already! The entire floor of the hospital where we are living is great! It has 11 bathrooms and 8 bedrooms and tons of space for us to house all of the MMRC volunteers! We will be doing screenings over the next week here and finding out what surgical teams are needed. Hopefully shortly after we will put together a team and get these surgeries done! MMRCglobal.org is meeting a little bit of resistance from the hospital staff here, they dont want any donations of equipment since they are a for-profit hospital. This means hopefully that when we get donations Liz and I can take them up north with us! Thankfully Liz and I have met no resistance in the north, the people up there are nothing but nice and gladly welcome any help that we can give them. Everyday we are given more opportunities and have more people willing to help us to help more people. It is amazing how things work out when I/we are so open to doing whatever comes my way. I am more than confident that the dreams and goals that the three of us (new Paul, Liz, and I) have are going to become a reality in only a short time in Pimampiro.
Katie comes this week and we are super excited to see her! She is bringing us all kinds of goodies...since she is the first person to come down since we have been here. We are super thankful for all of the things that she is bringing in her suitcase! Who is coming next??
I, of course have to mention the bus ride yesterday...might possibly have been one of the worst. First, we find out that the "nice bus" is full...so we decide to go to the bus station a little early to see if we can find something earlier. This original "nice bus" left at 730pm and got us to Guayaquil at 6am...this meant that we had to leave Pimampiro around 5. Well, after we called and found out that the bus was full we decided to leave early...it was about 3 when we got on the packed bus from Pimampiro to Ibarra. This is about an hour ride, but this time it took almost 2 and a majority of this time we were standing. Finally we got to sit down, but when I did a man reeking of alcohol decided I needed some company. He started asking me all kinds of questions, one being if I was from Pimampiro...of course I answered yes! Then he laughed...after one more question I told him very bluntly 'I dont want to talk to you!' he of course asked why and with no response he gave up. All this happening while Liz is about 5 feet away yelling at me to move away from him...unfortunately there was nowhere to go. When we arrived at the bus terminal there were people everywhere...we bought our bus tickets and found a place to wait for 2 long hours. We missed the 3pm bus and had to wait until 7pm...we ate and talked and sat and and and. 7 finally came, we boarded the bus...the guy that sat behind us had his not so personal sound system blasting, a lady came stomping and crying mascara running down her face and yelling at the man that was with her, and it seemed as if every child on the bus was screaming! Finally when we left at a prompt 7pm, as they said that we would (saying we left at 730 might be optimistic) and of course our driver was a crazy man! It wasnt one hour into the ride and we hit a small truck! Of course the people on the bus are screaming at the guy and screaming at our driver, after about 20 minutes sitting on the side of the road (and Liz hanging her head out the window to make sure our bags didnt get pulled off the bus) we were off again only to stop again shortly after. This time, not for an accident...but for who knows what. But, the people on the bus started stomping their feet and yelling for the driver to get back on the road. RIDICULOUS! But....luckily we made it here in just about 11 hours and it only cost us $10!! What can you ask for for only $10? Not too much...obviously!
As far as donations we will be setting up a website, or adding onto a website a donate button specifically for Liz and I and our projects. As for now, if you just cant wait let me know on facebook or by email and Ill give you an address! Thank you all so very much for supporting us!
