Guinea Pigs, Dogs, Cows, and Pigs

Today was another full day of surgeries at the hospital for our two plastic surgeons. Our first patient was a two-year old who had spilt hot water over his entire body and had already undergone two previous surgeries. Today's surgery was to enable him to lift his left arm higher than his shoulder as the burns had left him unable to do so. It broke my heart as he knew what was ahead of him for the day and he just didn't want to do it anymore. Our morning continued with repairs to cleft palates, release of scars, and various other surgeries to correct the many issues that these patients had been living with. I went in to the OR during a period when no patients were being worked on and am including a picture of us. After the surgeries had wrapped up I headed down to the clinic, but they were already starting to shut down as the number of patients had trickled down and we were setting out for tonight's adventure: a trip to Quizapincha, a small village outside of Ambato. They are known for their numerous leather shops, and upon arriving I understand why. It was shop after shop after shop of leather goods, so much that the smell became overpowering after some time. On the drive there, I was able to capture some photos that I had wanted to be able to show: the dogs on the roof and the cows on leashes. The fifteen minute drive to the village was full of some quite amazing views. We could see the entire city of Ambato below us and the magnitude of the size of this city just blew me away.












We then spent the early evening trying on leather jackets, leather boots, and leather hats. I managed to leave the city spending no money (all because the guy didn't want to come down on the price of the leather jacket I really wanted), but was privy to some rare sightings in town. A group of people called the Amerindians live high in the Andes mountains and we found one family walking their mule back home and I had to chase down a man who was walking his pig somewhere.

















We finally finished our shopping and headed back to the hotel. The nice volunteer who was driving us around listened to me stating that I had yet to see the famous delicacy fancied by the locals called cuy (guinea pig flayed on a spit) so she was nice enough to take us to a part of town that vendored these on the side of the road :) Not much else to relay for today. I came back to the hotel after our outing and enjoyed a nice dinner in the hotel with my roomie, Peg, and am now getting ready to call it a night so that we can approach tomorrow with a clear head as it is the last full day of surgeries and clinics that we will be hosting for this years mission.