Our Expedition to Manta was sponsored by the Armada del Ecuador (the Ecuadorian Navy). We left for Manta at 11:00 pm on Thursday May 26 in a small bus provided for us by the Navy. The road to Manta was long and very bumpy, but somehow we managed to get in at least a few hours of sleep. We arrived at the Manta Naval base at about 7:00 am and after a hearty breakfast we loaded back onto the bus and drove a short distance to Jaramijo, a small village on the coast. When we arrived there were hundreds of people waiting outside the school for us to begin the clinic. The people were so excited when we arrived. We got everything set up and began to take patients. We worked from 9:00 am to about 4:00. We did have a few technical difficulties due to lack of electricity, but thanks to the expertise of Mesias these problems were solved quickly. We saw 71 dental patients with 98 procedures performed, 163 medical patients, and 65 patients for the eye doctors.
After we had finished with the clinic we had a few hours to relax on the beach before we were taken into Manta for dinner again provided by the Navy. We ate at a little restaurant located right on the beach complete with dancing and live entertainment. Although we (the interns) couldn´t understand most of the language, we still had a great time laughing along with everyone.