Azogues: Narrow steep hills and cobblestone roads

From Ashifa Kassam, volunteer nurse from Los Angeles: The trip to Azogues has been absolutely amazing so far.  The town itself is beautiful with narrow steep hills.  Many roads are made of cobblestone, which get quite slippery after the rain. The views are breathtaking. The town goes to bed around 10pm and all is quite at 6am when I go for my walk. By 6:30am the town is bustling with kids going to school, shops opening for business, and people getting to their jobs. The major mode of transportation seems to be walking or driving. Surprisingly, there are many cars in Azogues. The butter, bread, coffee and the exotic fruits are delicious. People are kind and soft.  I´ve noticed how patient the parents are.  They come from far away, often traveling for days to arrive in time for clinic day.  We had more than 150 patients to see on clinic day.  Families continue to arrive everyday to be evaluated for surgery.  The Interplast team is well known in town, as there was an article in the paper about the organization and our goals and Interplast has been here many times before. Three of our team members and I went to a local restaurant for dinner.  The meal was absolutely delicious! Complete with fresh pineapple juice.  The woman who owned the restaurant was generous and kind.  She inquired about our plans, as she thought we were tourists.  We explained why we were in town. She had tears in her eyes.  She is familiar with Interplast.  She thanked us profusely for the work we do and said God would bless us in return.  I share this because I know that there are many individuals involved in planning and executing a trip.  Not only the ones who make the trip to physically be here, but all that give of their time, energy and share resources to make these trips happen. Know that what we do effect not only the patients and their families, but their towns. There is a ripple effect .... touching everyone.