Day 19 - The Andes Mountains of Ecuador

Wow!  That's what I remember thinking when I took this photo and that's still the reaction I have when I look at it now.  This was taken in the summer of 2000 on my very first overseas mission trip to southern Ecuador.

I was a 2nd year veterinary student at the University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine at the time.  As a 1st year student I had gotten involved with the Christian Veterinary Missions student group.  It just so happens that my assigned faculty mentor for the duration of my 4 years at UT was the faculty leader of the CVM group.  His name is D.J. Krahwinkel and he is a masterful small animal surgeon.

He is also a farm boy from KY - and loves cows.

The summer between my 1st and 2nd years of vet school I was on Summer Project in Panama City Beach, FL (see post from 2 days ago.)  During that summer my heart was stirred to do mission work and through my involvement with CVM, I realized that I was learning a skill set that would be quite useful in the mission field.  There are a lot of people in the world whose only source of income and survival is their animals.  And in those places there is often a shortage of veterinary care and expertise.  And in some of those places, there has been no exposure to the love of God and His plan of redemptive freedom.

What a cool mix - veterinary missions!

So, Dr. K takes a trip every year to do just that.  He normally takes along 2 senior students (as they have received adequate training to be helpful to him.)  But in 2000, he asked me - a lowly 2nd year student - to go with him and a senior student named Lynne.  I was ecstatic!!!

I have learned through the years that anytime I set out to do a trip like this, obstacles will arise.  And arise they did!  But God was faithful to provide and all things fell into place for me to go.  The plan was to travel for 8 days to southern Ecuador - high in the Andes mountains - and vaccinate and deworm cattle in the region.  We were working with a local church-planting missionary who made all the arrangements.  We had vaccines and supplies generously donated to cover treatment of over 300 animals.  

We flew from Knoxville, TN to Houston, TX - my first major flight.  And then we flew from Houston to Quito, Ecuador.  We landed at night - and I'm glad we did!  The flight into Quito is very winding through high mountain ranges and the airport is right in the middle of the city! The flight was not very long - and we were actually still in the same time zone.  But we soon found out that we were victims of a common practice - our luggage had been replaced by cargo.  We had no vaccines, no dewormer, and no clean clothes.

We were better off than another family that waited in the airport with us.  They were traveling the next morning by boat for a 2 week camping trip to the Galapagos Islands.  They had not received any of their luggage, either.  No tents.  No sleeping bags.  No food.

I'm not really sure what they ended up doing..... but I remember feeling awful for them. And for us!  We paid for that luggage - how dare the airline bail on our bags to bring cargo instead!  Did they have no sense of decency???

Grrrr.  I still get a little riled thinking about it.

So, the next day we did a little shopping so we could have some basic toiletries and such.  We exchanged money, visited the Equator, and went back to the airport in hope that our luggage was there.  It was not.  We went ahead and boarded our plane for the Loja province and off we went.

I had a water bottle in my carry-on.  Dr. K did not.  So, I shared water with him the first day or so.  This turned out to be a major mistake.  :)  His wife and several folks at the vet school had begun to get sick with a nasty chest cold.  Dr. K had a tickle in his throat but assured us it was just allergies.  In about 48 hours he and I were so sick.  Lynne managed to stay healthy - but he and I were really suffering.  We were actually quite relieved to find out that his wife was sick at home - that way we knew we were not dealing with some funky South American disease that might kill us.  :)

But before we got really ill, we made the flight to Loja.  It was an OLD plane.  The flight was crazy.  I could look out the windows of both sides of the plane and there were mountains RIGHT there.  When we landed, everyone on the plane cheered.  Dr. K explained that sometimes the landing is a bit rougher.  In fact, the previous year when he had come here it had not managed to stay on the runway and they ended up in the mud.

Glad he told us that AFTER the landing.  :)

We were in Ecuador for a total of 8 days.  We finally got our luggage on day 6.  We each had to buy shoes (rubber boots) to get around and hike in. (Can you say 'blisters'?) We had to purchase more cattle vaccines and dewormer.  And we had to deal with dirty clothes.  :)  And being sick.  And having to endure it raining almost everyday when the rainy season was supposed to be over.  And having our vehicle break down.  And having the missionary we were being hosted by steal our money and overall be a jerk to us.  And risking our lives to drive down a muddy, bumpy, steep mountain with no guardrails to keep us from falling off a 400ft cliff.

It was an experience I'll never forget.

I'm not sure really what impact we had on the farmers we worked with.  I'm not sure we really made any advancements for the ministry or the care of their cattle.

But I learned a ton.  I was stretched to trust God in completely new ways.  I met kind people who lived simply and were content with their humble circumstances.  I drank the best orange juice and coffee of my life.

And I got to be reassured by the view in the picture above that I was right where I was supposed to be at that moment in time.  And I really am so glad that I was.

Ecuador is a beautiful country with beautiful people.  I am thankful that I visited and even more thankful that I survived to tell about it.  :)