Feb. 4 – Last Day in Coca

Today was the last of the Coca patients ending with a total of 101!  This is a record for Hands Across The World and this is also the first mission ever to come to Coca. We interviewed just about everyone but the two resident doctors Andres and Carlos who never seemed to leave the operating tables. Rick, who is El Hefe as he’s responsible for the flow of the patients, said that Carlos operated on 41 patients! There’s a bit of sadness in the air and I feel it’s a combination of sadness to leave and exhaustion. All the interviews ended up in tears, except for one brave doctor.  We returned to the mission today to see Matilda and she has gone from cautious to a gentle smile. All the patients will leave tomorrow and the work will be done.

The mayor came today to thank the group and asked them to come back next year. They are needed and they just may.  I asked to interview her and she graciously accepted. The interview’s focus was the oil exploitation. The government has been selling the land to the Chinese. Correa threw out the American oil companies and is now selling mostly to China and partly to Brazil. In order to find the oil, they bomb the Amazon destroying the rainforest and then they drill.  Once they find the oil they send it through pipes that leak and all 3 rivers are polluted. The government owns the land and if they do not, they offer to buy. If the offer is refused, they take the land.

The town of Coca is growing 15 times faster than any city in Ecuador. It went from a sleepy city to 43,000 people yet they get very little support from the government as it goes to the bigger cities. Cancer and deformities are increasing in these villages that are now mud flats and the forest will soon be extinct. Correa has a plan in place to slow down the drilling but it is not clear if it will be accepted. It is said to hear what is going on and the only way we can stop it is by changing our fuel source and using less oil now.

The Mayor hosted our dinner, in fact, all the food for the week and our lodging. The town of Coca is only six blocks, which are filled with street vendors and small shops. Everything from baby chicks to raw meat is sold. The riverfront is where the area becomes nicer and a s you cross the bridge you enter the beginning of the rural area only now it’s being carved out by the oil companies. Even Halliburton has stepped in to exploit with their oil drilling platforms and energy services.

I digress again and can’t seem to keep my mind off of what is happening in this poor country. I miss my family and perhaps it’s because I see where the protection of the people and the land have been lost for economic gain.

Ben with the last patient, pulling his supplies out of the packed box

Robert and Rick packing the remaining anesthesia for Latacunga