Today, less than 24 hours after returning to the U.S. from Paraguay and 12 days with Operation Smile on a medical mission, I join some of my favorite Twitter friends to talk all about it on Social Media Girlfriends radio.
If you haven’t gotten to know the women and men who populate this fun twitter group, it’d be worth your while to take a listen. Pink for my friend and host Dabney Porte and Social Media Girlfriends!
This trip to Paraguay was both the most tiring and the most rewarding 12 days ever! It would be incorrect to call it the trip of a lifetime, because I am sure I will be going on more trips with Operation Smile. My hope is to go on one medical mission every year.
A special thanks to all who donated to help support this trip. The last day to contribute is FRI. If I get so lucky as to exceed my goal, all additional funds will be given to Operation Smile!
Twenty Five years ago!
He’s still BAD.
I miss Michael Jackson;
I was, still am, a big fan.
I couldn’t help but draw that yellow circle on his jacket to show you the Smiley Face I found.
Watch the great animation movie commemorating the 25th anniversary.
Introducing some pretty great dancers and choreographers!
At LEFT: Still picture.
BELOW: Video.
Los maravillosos niños
bailarines
del Paraguay!
(The amazing dancing children of Paraguay.)
The first day at the hospital was amazing. So amazing. I hardly know where to start.
The hospital is part of a military base which we entered through a gate guarded by soldiers with great big, scary looking guns. The sight of them seemed so incongruous to what we were there to do. We passed though the security, and in the field next to the hospital, we got the first look at the waiting parents and children; we were told that 60 families had been there since 4am. Hundreds more had arrived since. bus loads more would arrive through out the day.
Large tents had been erected to provide shade. Several long tables were set up with chairs along either side, one side for families and one side for interviewers. One of the many great things I was to witness, was that many of the initial screeners were local high school students who had trained to be the ones who asked the questions to get the patient charts started. How cool to see kids helping kids.
Inside the hospital were multiple stations through which each child would pass. They would be weighed and measure, photographed and x-rayed. Vitals would be taking. Tests of hearing and blood would be administered. They would be evaluated by nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologist, audiologists, speech therapists, dentists and orthodontists.
Many children were deemed not healthy enough to be unable to tolerate surgery. This was determined by things as simple as being extremely underweight, anemic or having a fever. And although that decision was made at the first station, all patients were encouraged to stay and see all of the doctors in hopes that causes for the issue that excluded them could be discovered and treatment started. Pretty cool, huh?
Being the non-medical type, as in I get faint just visiting people in the hospital, my job was to play with all the kids who would spend much of the day waiting and waiting and waiting. There were so many kids. Easily as many, if not more, did not have clefts; these were the patients’ siblings. Lots of kids, need lots to do. To that end I brought 2 huge suitcases filled with toys and art supplies.
It took a bit of time to get into the groove; the kids and I both were not sure just how this was to work. They were feeling shy and so was I. Yes, I am shy. People always think I am not. I just hide it well. And BTW, one can be gregarious and also shy.
So feeling self conscious I figured, what the heck I’d do the most out-there thing I could think of and get it over with. So why not start dancing? I recruited a couple of other volunteer (grabbed is actually the more accurate verb). We put on wristbands with long flowing ribbons (made by my great daughter Hilary and me) and started frolicking. The kids took some cajoling to join us, particularly the kids with the clefts. The siblings were much less shy-no big surprise. With timid children, who clearly looked as if they wanted to join in, I got their moms dancing and slowly they opened up. We made up a little choreography using dance moves from good old Jazzercize.
The remainder of the day was spent both outdoors with the waiting kids and families and indoors with the kids as they progressed through the stations. Inside I got to spend one on one time with kids and more than a few nestled themselves into my heart. Knowing that I’d be able to shadow a few children through there surgery day staying with them through the whole process, I started writing their ID numbers onto my hand so that I might ask to be with them. Funny thing is that by the end of the day many of the numbers had washed off. When I was asked to describe their deformity so that the medical person I was asking might recall which kid I was talking about, I couldn’t do it. I’d spent 45 minutes with the kid, together solving geometric puzzles, but I hadn’t noticed why they were here. With so many kids with clefts, I just stopped noticing.
Tomorrow we go to the hospital and families find out if their kids were selected. I am sure it will be powerful both for the joy and the sorrow. In Paraguay, the local team has psychologists to talk to each family about why their child was not selected, what they can do next, and able to refer them for services locally or helping them to understand the process for applying to come to the states for cases too difficult to be done in Paraguay.
Tomorrow is also the final day of getting the Operation and Pre & Post Op Rooms set up. Then Wednesday the surgeries begin. It will be 5 tables going all day for 5 days; the days will be long–ten to twelve hours everyday.
Feeling so lucky to be here.
Smile. Be happy. Be happy you can!
Ruth
P.S.: If you ever go to a small hospital where hundreds of people will be using just 2 toilets, bring toilet paper.
I’d definitely have “The Little Prince.”
From this picture you wouldn’t know it, but this hotel is beautiful inside-just like the pictures from the website. When we arrived at the hotel we all had a similar response-that’s not what it looked like on the internet. Everyone emerged from the cars with quizzical looks on their faces. Not judgmental, just confused. From the outside it looked like a place mid construction where the workers either hadn’t shown up recently and left without tidying up. I actually thought our driver had pulled over because of car trouble or something. It didn’t occur to me that this could be a hotel that was open for business.
How’s that for a don’t judge a book by it’s cover lesson?
Day two comes to an end and I head to bed for the first night in Paraguay. The last 36 hours have been packed and tomorrow will be a long day of screening potential patients for the week of surgery ahead. We were told tonight that there’s likely to be at least 300 kids there tomorrow. My bag is packed with tons of supplies to keep them all occupied. Wish me luck and TTFN, I’m too beat to write more.
I left home Thursday morning for my trip to Paraguay with Operation Smile. Big adventure-lots to learn-people to meet. Thursday morphing into Friday was a very long day but everything is going super well so far. The woman at the American Airlines counter couldn’t have been nicer. When she saw my Operation Smile identification on my luggage she told everyone else at the counter where I was going and what I’d be doing. General good feelings shared by all. And, I got to pass out Smiley pins to everyone. Great start to the trip.
This is yet another example of strangers being kind to stranger. Sadly strangers have gotten such a bad rap. The whole don’t talk to strangers thing is a sad, misguided approach to life. We are hard wired to interact; survival of the species mandates that we turn strangers into intimates. How sad that we’ve swallowed the fear mongering credo that one must assume the worst of people they do not know instead of assuming the best.
I have long ago rejected the idea that the world is populated with people who want to do me harm or want to steal my children or my possessions. Put that ideology behind you and life opens to a world of friendly people, no different from yourself, people doing the best they can with the situations and strangers they encounter. Just as you feel relieved when an interaction goes smoothly, so do they. And just so I don’t get a slew of agitated emails, I’m not advocating children wandering freely, through dangerous neighborhoods, after dark, announcing they are carrying large amounts of money.
And to address another concern…what about when you put yourself out there, all abubble with perky, outgoing zeal and the recipient shuts you down with a frown? How about, smile? Sometimes it irritates them. Sometimes it disarms them. Either way you’ve done your best to make the world friendlier. And, I’d be willing to bet that either way, you have also helped to change the other person’s mood for the better. Even the dude that scowls at you, absorbs the fact that happiness exists out there.
Adios and smile. Be happy! Be happier!
Ruth
I am excited to introduce you to a very cool educational website where I’ll be posting occasionally. I hope you’ll check them out. Its’s always nice to support the people who support you, by clicking around and commenting on what you see. I hope you’ll give them a peek.
Smile. Be happy. Be happier!
Ruth
