Guatemala City:
Today was one of those days where there was SO much packed
into one day, by the end of the day it felt like "this morning" was
yesterday!
Last night we had an organizational meeting and met the
doctors and helpers for the surgery. I was so exhausted by the time I went to
bed, I hit the bed and slept til my alarm went off at 6 am. We had a group
breakfast and then got on the bus at 7:15 am, driving through town to the
hospital.
If you saw the hospital from the outside, you'd never know it
was there. It is in a poor neighborhood and the buildings are a patchwork of
concrete and tin roofs. It is not the kind of neighborhood I'd want to wander
around in.. at night or during the day.
We entered the hospital and came into the assessment room. In
the next room there were dozens of families from all over Guatemala… parents
hoping that their child would be chosen for surgery. There were a few older
children, and one beautiful teen girl who had terrible scarring all over her
leg.
I appointed myself the official family photographer. While the
surgeon's assistants took the technical photos and took notes on the cleft
palates and cleft lips, I took photos of the human side of the
story:
The hopeful mother who tried to understand as the doctor's
diagnosis was translated.
The loving father who tenderly lifted his son onto the
examination table.
The teenage boy who burst into the most incredibly
heartbreaking smile as he left the exam, after being told he would receive the
corrective surgery.
As the exams continued through the morning, we went out to the
many families waiting outside, and started handing out gifts to the mothers and
the children. First we gave them all a fabric tote bag. Then we gave each child
a handmade quilt. These quilts were donated by friends of Mission of Love in
Ohio. We had *just enough* quilts so that every child could receive one – whew!
We had 2 left over, and then there were one or two families that came later in
the day.
Then we began to distribute clothing and toys to the families,
and they put everything in the fabric tote bags. These people come from near and
far, and they have very little money or possessions, so these gifts were a
treasure beyond belief. The humble grateful smiles cannot be described with
words.
I should mention that when the C5 huge plane landed in
Guatemala City yesterday, it was stuffed with 10' x 10' huge paletts of relief
supplies, medical supplies, and clothing for the children. Much of this went on
trucks to a warehouse before distribution, but also much of it came to the
hospital. There were medical supplies not only for these surgeries, but also in
general to supply this community hospital.
So as we distributed all these goodies to the children and
families, we took photos of all the children and the families. When I am able to
post these photos, you will understand why this team of doctors and helpers are
moved to come and volunteer their time to help these children. Everyone pays
their way to get here, pays for their own hotel, and contributes time and money
to this Mission of Love.
The assessment process had 2 teams of 2 doctors and several
assistants. To say it was intense would be an understatement. At one point I
suddenly felt completely exhausted, and I could have sworn it was noon. I was
shocked when I looked at my watch and saw that it had only been 2 hours since we
started! (8 to 10 am) We all seemed to come to the same place at the same time
– and fortunately they were just finishing up with the last few
assessments.
Then the team went up stairs and had coffee and a snack. The
medical teams sat down to discuss their evaluations, and make the surgery
schedule for the week. It was interesting to hear them work out who would
receive which surgery on which day. This went on for quite a long time, then we
had a beautiful homemade lunch by the hospital's cook. The doctors had decided
to do 2 relatively simple surgeries for the afternoon, and our host took us out
to the Central Market downtown by the cathedral. On the way to the center of the
city, we passed shantytowns densely packed on the sides of the hills.
We also caught glimpses of the volcano that towers over the
city. Volcan de Fuego (volcano of fire) regularly seeps trickles of lava, which
can often be seen at night here. During the day there is often a cloud obscuring
part of the mountain, and I am hoping to get a good photo before I leave
Weds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Fuego
The market was also very intense. It is 3 floors of densely
packed booths, selling crafts, food, and almost anything you can imagine. There
were many children working there. Our host told me that the government only
supplies free education through 6th grade, but many drop out by 2nd grade to
help with the family business. We saw babies, children and teens throughout the
market.
Then we went outside and walked around to the huge historic
cathedral.
(The market is underground, behind the cathedral.) We went
inside and spent about a half hour. I lit a candle for Hanna (as I always do
when I visit cathedrals around the world) and we watched all the women wearing
beautiful handwoven ikat skirts.
The cathedral was facing a huge plaza with a fountain, and the
President's House is across the plaza. However the plaza was full of people and
a festival, and there was a huge line stretching around the plaza, full of
people waiting to ice skate! The sides of the plaza were lined with more vendor
booths selling all kinds of beautiful Guatemala handmade products and textiles.
We walked through the crowd clutching our bags – there are many pickpockets and
gangs here, we were told.
We drove back to the hospital, and found that the surgeries
were not complete yet. After 1 1/2 hours of waiting, we were told that the 2nd
surgery had just been successfully completed. I was able to go into the
operating room and see the 11 year old girl who had just had a golf-ball sized
tumor removed from her upper lip. She was still unconscious from the general
anesthetic. She was just a beautiful girl with a band-aid on her lip at that
point. What a miracle!
I am learning about what it takes to correct a severe cleft
palate. In the case where there is a huge hole in the top of the mouth, they
have to harvest bone from the edge of the hipbone, and put a bone graft in the
roof of the mouth. Aha, so that's how they do it! The cleft palate is not
always apparent when you look at the face of the child. As I listened to the
doctors discussing their diagnosis and surgery plan, I also learned that many of
the children have fistulas too. The cleft lips are snipped open and then
stitched together. I am just trying to comprehend the whole thing.
Another thing I realized quickly is that these trips are an
opportunity for the doctors to work on problems that they would hardly ever see
in the US. It is kind of like how a battefield surgeon is best equipped to work
in an emergency room – because afterwards they've seen it all. Every time these
docs come here, they see things they've never dealt with before. They put their
heads together until they agree on a diagnosis and a surgery plan. It is really
something.
So tomorrow I've been invited to come into the operating room
and witness a surgery first hand. Actually they offered to let me scrub up and
hold the retractors, but I don't think I can handle that. They said I can watch
as much or as little as I want, and that I can watch more than one surgery.
Anyway tomorrow 8 surgeries are going to happen – 8 children's lives are going
to be changed forever due to the unconditional love and generosity of this
amazing group of people.
I am curious if I can watch without passing out. We'll
see.
Tomorrow night we've been invited to attend the ballet recital
of the head doctor's daughter. Dr. Edgar runs this community hospital as a
community service. He is clearly there to serve the indigent people. The Mayans
are treated like 2nd class citizens here, and their children with cleft palates
are treated as outcasts. So it really takes awhile to comprehend the enormity of
what it means for this many people to come from the US to make this happen.
There are 13 people who have come from the US on this trip. The next Mission of
Love trip in February is for the Way-Bi Children's Hospice, and there are 23
people signed up for that trip.
The one-woman Force of Nature named Kathy Price simply cannot
not be described. She brings all of these people together, gets the Air Force to
airlift massive tons of aid for free, and manages to hug and kiss and personally
interact with everyone who crosses her path.
Several families could not make it to the hospital for
assessment today, because there was a terrible earthquake in their area (several
hours away) a few weeks ago.
The doctors said that cleft palate and cleft lip is
statistically and genetically more prevalent in Latin America and Asia, and less
common in Europe and Africa.
Tonight at dinner I saw next to a 6 year old girl, (our bus
driver's daughter) and I taught her songs in English, including the Itsy Bitsy
Spider, complete with hand gestures. She pressed me to "Play! Play! Play"" and
teach her more and more songs until she passed out at 9 pm.
I took over 900 photos today, so it will take me a little
while to sort through them all.
Tomorrow the big surgeries begin. It is going to be a big
day.
Tuesday we are going out to the countryside so they can show
me the school for the blind children, and the site where the Children's Hospice
is being built on a mountaintop.
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