We grabbed all of our gear, once we found out everyone was ready for the day, and headed down the brick pathway towards the gate so we could be picked up by our hired transportation. There were a lot of bags to load inside the trucks. Joyce said the trucks were here so it was okay to open the gate and start loading them into the back. The truck drivers helped us. We fit as many people into the trucks as we could. About 4-5 people could fit inside the trucks. We drove out of Cotacachi to the small community of Pinsaqui.
Pinsaqui is located, roughly 10 minutes away from Cotacachi, along the E35 freeway, north of Otavalo. It is nestled beneath the flanks of the Imbabura Volcano and in the heart of the Ecuador lake providence. It is a small community with at least 500 people living there. The trucks turned off of the freeway onto this thrashed dirt road. The community had torn up the asphalt so they could repave it and make it a little more modern. There were actually people out there working on it as we drove up. It was quite a bumpy ride to the community center.
We arrived and we backed the trucks into where we would unload our bags. It took everyone to unload it in a timely fashion. We met the community President, who spoke Quechua, Spanish and English.
We found out Joyce frequents this community often donating clothing, quilts and even presents at Christmas time. She had a great connection with them.
We needed to get the community center ready for our patients who were already assembling in the courtyard. We were let inside and we started getting all the tables and chairs ready, wiping down everything and starting up on our stations. We would have a prophy, restoration and surgery stations along with a medication table and a prize/blanket/clothing table. We worked fast and got everything up and going. We even had time for a group picture before we started.
We saw a steady stream of patients for a large part of the day. Since they were there so were some of the community animals such as dogs and cats. These animals are taken better care of than the animals that live in the cities. We even saw some chickens and chicks running around the courtyard of the community center.
Again, people would wait all day to see us, just like they did the last time I was here. They were very patient and tough people. I mean you have to be with the elements here in the lower part of the Andes Mountains. It is not as warm as the southern part because of elevation but you still get your humidity and you could still get sunburned in five minutes.
Amy started to not feel so good. She woke up feeling bad and decided to power her way through it. Around mid morning is when she decided she could no longer continue and had Joyce and a taxi come get her and take her back to Cotacachi to rest and try to feel better. She thought she may have eaten something that didn't agree with her the night before...which was possibly the pizza they had. Josh would text and call her throughout the day to see how she was doing.
Last time I was the sterilization person but this time Josh was the main sterilization person and I filled in for him when he was needed else where such as the prophy area or helping with extractions. We actually had a sterilization machine this time.
There wasn't a whole lot of sterilization needed in the morning so I spent most of my time getting bags of IB Profin and Amoxicillin bagged up with Spanish instructions written in Sharpie on the outside of the baggie. I had put together a good amount of them and separated them in a box so they were easy to grab when patients came over after extractions. When the patients did come over, I had an interpreter with me to relay my instructions into Spanish so they understood them. This would probably be the only time in my life where I could say I was a pharmacist for a day.
We broke for lunch around the noon/1 p.m. hour. Joyce had set up with the community cooks to assemble some lunches for us. We were given a clam shell box full of chicken, rice, potatoes and salad. I helped Joyce distribute the food to everyone and of course all the dogs and cats wanted some food. We had a heck of a time keeping them away. The food hit the spot and I decided that the food up north is way better than the food down south.
As the day neared the end, the stream of people slowed down. We started going through our supplies and packing up the stuff we didn't use and making sure it got labeled for tomorrow's clinic. We set it aside while we finished up the rest of the patients who were getting restoration, extractions or having the cavitron clean their teeth.
Once we were done with all the patients who made their way to the community center, Joyce called in the trucks to come get us and the suitcases full of supplies. The community President thanked us from the bottom of his heart for coming out to his community and doing something selfless to help out the need of others. He appreciated us and he hoped that we had a great time on the rest of our time here.
We helped load up the trucks and we all hopped in. We drove the ten minutes back to Cotacachi and had the trucks drop us off in front of Joyce's gate. We called Amy to buzz us in and we hauled all of our stuff back to the condos. Joyce and everyone else got ready to head on out to town for dinner and to walk around and shop. Mom and I decided to stay behind and get showers, some laundry done and to relax and watch some March Madness...since we had TV. We could have gone out but we've seen most of the town and we really weren't that hungry. Save some money while you can right? We just ate some of the snacks we brought with us. You know crackers and peanut butter...stuff like that.
We took showers first because we had to have the propane tank on the correct hose, this case the showers so we had hot water. After the showers we had to switch the hose to the dryer so we could dry the clothes. It was weird using a washing machine and dryer that was in Spanish and using the propane tanks. It was quite the adventure. I went down (it was outside in the "basement" area) to switch the clothes over to the dryer. I stopped in the grass to marvel at the stars. Since we were in the Southern Hemisphere we could see the Southern Cross. This was something I have not experienced yet because the last time we were here we were in the city and the lights overpowered the stars. It was awesome to see some different constellations and the Southern Cross on this trip. I soaked in the moment.
Everyone got back a few hours later. Mom and I watched Gonzaga beat Fairleigh Dickson (FDU) pretty badly in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Around 9:30 we started getting our beds ready in the dining room. We got ready for bed and set our alarms for early again. Tomorrow would be another long clinic day. Earplugs in!
Next Adventure: Second Clinic: The Community of Moncayo
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