Good News

Tomorrow our supplies are to be released from customs in Cancun. This is good news! The clinic will go on!

Morelia

We met with Morelia last night. What an amazing person she is. Her house and yard are full of rescued animals. Puppies, cats, pelicans, and a full grown raccoon getting onto everything. Hard to have a conversation while you are watching all these species play together. Everyone is getting along and full of love for the others. The two trouble makers are the raccoon and a basset puppy.
Morelia will contact customs today. She has all the paperwork from Mexico City and knows all the officials to contact. She feels she can get our bags back without a problem. Things are looking up!! The sun is shining!!

Customs

Last year we were worried about getting through customs and of course had our drugs confiscated. The confiscated drugs were not controlled but were taken never the less. This year I divided the items concerned between everyone coming down from the Seattle area so if there was an issue perhaps some items would get through and we could reorder what didn't make it. I never dreamed that this year customs would decide that everything involved with the clinic was medical equipment and could not be allowed in to the country. We had 2 large bags and a cat trap full of all of the supplies. Everything was confiscated. There were 32 spay packs, the autoclave, gauze, sterile paper drapes, suture, needles, syringes,flea spray, plastic containers, catheter plugs, nolvasan, and everything else required for our clinic. I have a meeting with Morelia tonight to begin the process of getting everything out of impoundment. The officials said it would require a letter (not sure from whom) which seems pretty simple except this country is in the midst of a flu epidemic and the government has bigger worries than a small spay neuter clinic. I will add more as soon as I know more.

We Are On Our Way!!

It is 8:04 AM and we are at Sea Tac awaiting our flight to Cancun. Hard to imagine that in 6 hours we will be warm having left this cold, rainy climate behind. All supplies have been divided amongst volunteers coming from Washington. Our letter providing clearance through customs didn't arrive so all injectables face confiscation again. This year the packing and preparation went so much smoother. So all is ready and well. Well almost, as there is this one little issue called Swine Flu that has really gotten everyone's attention. Of all the things that could affect this trip and project I never dreamed of having to worry about an epidemic of flu. Time will tell if everyone can come as planned to help. I think the next week will be very interesting. If all goes well our clinic will be filmed by Jean Anderson who is an amateur maker of documentary films. I will try to update the blog frequently.