Message from Ecuador

In typical style I've been a little lax with my blogging responsabilities. That's not to say that there's nothing to write about. Just too little time. The July visit to Guatemala with the Illini Prosthetics Team was a success. The IPT is working on a new, low-cost prosthetic arm technology. We were able to work with several ROMP patients testing the prototypes. The feedback that our patients shared has been invaluable to the team of engineers as they begin working on the new and improved models. More information from Illini Prosthetics.

In other news, same hemisphere just different country, ROMP will be sending its first team to Haiti in less than two weeks! Our long-term friendship with the very dedicated Healing Hands for Haiti Foundation has led to this. A team of 7 professionals from the Chicago area, Minnesota and Ecuador (my wife Daniela) will participate in a 9 day project focusing on education and clinical assistance in two rehab centers on the island. In Port-au-Prince, the team will work at the Handicap International rehab center with prosthetics students from Haiti and the University of Don Bosco in El Salvador. They will provide educational seminars and work together on specific patient cases. Outside of Port-su-Prince, the team will work in a spinal injury center with orthotists and rehabilitation specialists.

This is the first ROMP trip to Haiti but not the last. We are proud to work with Healing Hand for Haiti Foundation and honored to serve the Haitian people in our own small way.

My brother and Pat Mathay are more than halfway done with their impressive endeavor, Riding for ROMP 2010. They left Eugene, Oregon (on their bikes) on June 19th and are now sleeping soundly (I hope) in Manzanillo, Mexico just south of Puerto Vallarta. At the end of the month they enter Guatemala for the 6-day home stretch through killer 6,000 foot climbs and the winding, volcano-shaped terrain of Guatemala all the way to the ROMP lab in Zacapa. As of now they have raised around $25,000 for ROMP projects and have had quite an experience along the way.

There's so much more to come and I hope that whoever might be reading this little 'ol blog will someday too have a chance to be a part of it. Oh, and by the way, I haven't even told you yet about what's starting here in Ecuador for ROMP...later.

Dave