Tuesday: 10-13-09: WHEELCHAIRS!!

Yes, friends. We have wheelchairs.

The day started with a god-awful early trip to the customs warehouse where storage takes place after the chairs clear through customs and are removed from the port.

There is a steel door behind Cesar and Teresa from whence there shall eventually emerge a security guard (very Emerald City) with an all-important fax. And a machine gun. But only one will be the ticket to our admission. Guess which one?

You're wrong.

Fax arrives!

Onward!

It doesn't take too long to load 30 of our 80 chairs into the Camino de Vida van and someone's sedan. The biggest issue is finding room for the people afterward. The new wheelchairs come in their own boxes- no loose parts- so that's a huge help!

We spent a small bit of time posing with boxes because, of course, that will help us get work done. I won't take pictures of my food- but I will pose with a cardboard box. It's just one more of my many little quirks.

Actually, that's why they sent me. No one would look as good with these boxes as I do... that's my job at FWM. Go down to the warehouse and find as many ways as you can to build forts.

Below Left: Staci and I realize our full potential-- posing with boxes and doing a damn fine job of it.
Below Right: Cesar is much more comfortable than the rest of us with the idea of being crushed to death by humanitarian aid.

 

Below: One of the few policia around the sight without a machine gun. He stopped, presumably, to smile for the photograph about which I was gesturing wildly from the big church bus. If I choose to be honest with myself, then it's more likely that he stopped to attempt to recall whether or not HE drank the water.

Below: Lisa, Staci, Me and the place where Noe's view out the back window should be.

The rest of the day was owned by wheelchair assembly and a barrage of manufacturing issues (98% of which have been resolved, and 2% of which we expected to encounter during the course of a clinical study, anyhow...). Welding issues resulted in the guys from Camino de Vida drilling their own holes through steel in order to piece a frame together (a one of a kind situation, thus far, and we are bringing the chair home with us- not distributing it).

 

Remember my arsenal disguised as a gear bag? That's more or less empty now- presents all around for CdV and an empty suitcase for me to fill with black market goods from Bolivia to bring home on the cheap... (joke. we actually considered going to this weirdly illegal-but-no-one-really-cares mall; unfortunately don't have the time amidst all of our other wacky plans).

So there you go- this was last Tuesday so it's been exactly a week since any of this actually happened. A quick update for those who haven't heard: I'm going to be staying an additional week to finish sussing out some of the issues we've worked through in the last 7 days. We've made incredible progress, but there's much left to do, I haven't had much time to sit down and write at the end of each day, unless it's for work. I'm giddy like a schoolgirl to backtrack (yet again) and tell you about the rest of the week and the weekend so we can get to the good stuff: distributions starting this Monday!

Thanks for the continued words of encouragement and well wishes.

And for everyone subscribing to the blog- you guys are awesome!

(Josh- way to comment on every lonely post. Now if only you'd get back to your own blog, yeah? Just a suggestion, seeing as your comments are more prolific than my page-long posts.)

Thanks all!

Love!

Andy