January 27, 2014

Hola Mic,

I have just received the prostheses for the hip and knee replacements. There are more coming; however, they have been delayed from Toronto. I'll unfortunately miss the meeting tomorrow as there is a lot of packing and other things to look after and the time to departure is short! Please share with the Club that most of our team of 61 individuals leaves for Houston early Thursday morning. The rest leave Friday morning.

From Houston, we fly to Quito, arriving around Midnight. We still do not have the letter from the Minister of Health in Quito! Maybe the letter will be at the Airport in Quito like it was last year. Fingers crossed! I started working on the documents in September and still the official letter from the Minister has not arrived.

I'm glad that Wayne and Paul are along and of course I am grateful for the support of our Club. It is a combined effort from many people.

The Quito Airport is 90 minutes out of Quito [hard to find flat land in the Mountains]. We will overnight in a hotel in a small town about 30 minutes away. Friday morning we will fly into Cuenca. Rotarians from the Tomebamba Club are usually on hand to welcome the Canadian team. We then get settled and start acclimatizing to the altitude – 8,500 ft or so [Edmonton is only 2,201 ft].

Saturday we will hold a massive clinic. We will have the follow-up clinic with last year’s patients and then new patients. Sunday afternoon we hope to start the hip and knee replacement surgeries. The Children's surgeries will be at the Military Hospital. We plan to work hard and long days for the whole week as we would like to help as many people as we can. To wrap things up on Friday [February 7] we have a party with the Tomebamba Club.

Thanks again for the support of Riverview Rotary Club!
Tom