Ecua-experience of a lifetime

My main reason for coming on this trip? Medical rotations and volunteering.
I was in the pre-medical program and for the week of medical rotations, I met the most incredible people. Not only were the tutors nice, encouraging, funny and intelligent, they were caring. They cared about whether we, as the students and participants, were safe, enjoying our experiences and having all of our questions answered while at the hospital. We were given opportunities to watch surgeries, understand how hospital equipment is used, learn about taking vital signs of a patient and patient interaction, and see doctors rescue someone´s life. 11/10 would be the rating I give for the tutors and medical rotations week. Aside from the medical rotations week, the week we spent building homes in Pujili was amazing. We all poured our sweat and tears (tears of joy from having fun with the children in the community!) into these homes and when it was finally time to officially give them away, that´s when it really hit me. I did it. WE did it. We made an impact on a hundred people, helping to make their lives easier. We saw their smiles and tears and children running to their new homes. Shortly after giving away the homes, we went to see their current homes and that´s when it hit me again. In comparison to their current homes, the homes we gave them were like mansions. It felt wonderful to be able to help a community this way, and I´ve never been more proud of myself that I participated in such a meaningful action as this.
Finally, the cherry on top. We went from city to city; Banos, Mindo, Canoa and Quito only to name a few. We hiked to waterfalls, repelled down waterfalls, shopped for hours at markets, galloped on horses at Cotopaxi, sang songs on the bus, swang off a cliff, took a cable car across a waterfall, laughed too long at inside jokes and surfed in the ocean. Everything we saw was like a scene out of a postcard. (And I´m not exaggerating because Cotopaxi looks even more incredible than the post cards.)

And last but not least, this program had the best owners: Juan and Jose. One word to describe these two people: Incredible