Our Emergency Meeting

Today in Pifo we were supposed to go out into the community to visit houses and take care of children. But to our surprise, Dra. Ortiz said that our home visits were canceled because she had been called to an emergency meeting of health professionals in the nearby town of Yaruqui concerning the recent outbreak of Swine Flu. I know in the United States this probably isn't as new of news as it is to Jennifer and me here in Ecuador because we are half living under a rock as far as US/world news is concerned. So having this meeting pop up was a little concerning! But, being the eager students we are, we decided to tag along and see what they had to say.
We were treated to a powerpoint presentation on the current news, along with a lot of recommendations for preparedness in the communities of Ecuador. Things got a little heated when one of the doctors in the room pressed the presenter with why he thinks every child in Ecuador needs to have information cards on how to prevent the flu, and the presenter kept insisting that her job was only to inform. But regardless, news of this awful disease sure is hitting home here, even when there are no cases (thankfully) in Ecuador. Our preceptor, Dr. Espinel, was on national TV this morning as well (he's famous!) explaining the virus and its symptoms/transmission.
Jennifer and I sure are keeping our fingers crossed that this thing blows over quickly and with as little impact as possible! And, hopefully any travel restrictions that are in place won't prevent us from returning back to the United States on May 14th... already a student that came from Holland just yesterday had some delays with air transportation due to issues stemming from concern over Swine Flu. But in any case, here's hoping that everyone at home stays Swine Flu-free!