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November 19 OpSmile NicaraguaPart Two: Last mission day
We also went to day goodbye to Corina and Yilber this morning. Yilber had been admitted for some early pneumonia symptoms and started breathing treatments. He looked good this morning and we found out Friday night that he had been discharged and would return to his home on Saturday. It was difficult to say goodbye for when will we see them again if ever. Hopefully we will stay in contact through our local people and that all will be well with them. Corina is very strong and a good mother. I know she will keep her children safe and well. With the knowledge she now holds from visiting the US and being with her Operation Smile family, she knows she has a special place in our hearts. Walking out the front doors of the hospital for the last time I took a moment to glance back and couldn't help but smile. The memories we shared with our team inside the hallways and rooms of this hospital will forever be etched in our minds and we can only hope that the surgeries for these 108 children will provide them with a new outlook on life and a new beginning.
We decided to spend the rest of the day out in the city of Managua, our first stop being the American Nicaraguan School. Lily and Alvero's children attend school here and we were blessed with having their high school volunteers help us translate this week. In getting to know Lily and her extended family, we felt like the school might embrace the beginnings of an Operation Smile Happy Club in the elementary school. Alec proved himself this week and enlightened many by his willingness to work and help keep the kids happy while waiting for surgery. We now wanted to reach out in-country to see if there might be kids who would be willing to do the same. We shared our story with a few of the student council at ANS and they seemed happy to help! The PE Director and Director of the Lower School, along with the guidance counselor were ready and willing. They may even do the Miles for Smiles initiative with us starting after the holidays up until the Shamrock weekend. It was an opportunity to share how active our little ones in the US are becoming and invite them to join us. Alec had a chance to attend a PE class with his new friend Gabriel and see how the school runs. With the American curriculum and even Nix Nuggets (Mrs. Nix) similar to Mr. Stahl's (stahller dollars) there is even consistency in rewards for behavior! The students were a pleasure to meet and we can be sure to have relations with them for years to come! With only hours to spare before our team dinner, we quickly drove to the nearby active volcano to see this nature wonder. When we walked up to the wall and looked down, we could not believe we could be so close!
As our time in Nicaragua came to a close, Alec and I realized what an opportunity we had been given. Alec is only 10 years old and although I think it is hard for him to put into words his feelings about his experience, I know this has impacted on his life. As he was playing his last game of soccer in the Montealegre's front yard with a bunch of boys who had become his friends, it was obvious that our world is such a small place. Like my dad has always said, when you work together for the sake of another human being you can not help but become friends. Alec has helped quietly inspire others to get their children involved and for our next generation of children around the world, we must help guide our children so that they have the tools and resources to create change. It is a gift and privledge to be able to serve others and our children will learn this as we lead by example.
I am going to steal Alec's opening sentence for his last paragraph of Mrs. Lankford's writing assignment because it really summarizes our time in Managua with Operation Smile. As we boarded the plane to leave for Atlanta the pilot asked us, "Where is your tan?" It had been a beautiful week of weather. Alec looked at him and said, "We were in the hospital all week helping the children of Operation Smile." Although we did not have a chance to explore the beautiful lakes and beaches or ride the zip line in the Canopy above the rainforest we did get to learn about a culture whose mothers and fathers care deeply about their children and will go to great lengths to make their lives whole. We did get to hold these babies in our arms and shed tears with their mothers when a child's smile was transformed. To witness the weight lifted from a parent's shoulders after sometimes years of wonder and anxiety was a true gift. They say that when you give without receiving, you get so much more in return... this could not be more true after an experience like this. I will forever hold the memory of Alec bringing smiles to the children of Nicaragua by the simple gesture of blowing thousands of bubbles in hopes that he will forever remember this too. November 16 OpsmileNicaraguaOpSmile Nicaragua Mission day 5
This is it. The last day of surgeries in Nicaragua. Everyone did well last night after their surgeries and we were able to catch an older group who we hung out with yesterday before they went home. Onne girl was maria, a 14 year old girl who had a bilateral lip repaired at a younger age. The bilateral lips are more difficult to repair and so she needed a revision to make her lip more full. At this age they are much more conscious of how they look and she even was brave enough to ask us about her teeth and whether or not she could get some work done to them. When you are born with a bilateral they often have to pull the front teeth because they are sticking out or the gum has not formed correctly so they do not have front teeth. We wish we could help them with this, and we could in the US, but unfortunately, she is going to have to get comfortable with the fact that they are missing and to keep the teeth healthy that she has. I discovered yesterday that she is very smart and works hard in school, so I gave her a challenge. Audrey Williamson gave us some magic Treehouse books to bring over and although she cannot understand English, she can read. I gave her the books and a spainish/english dictionary and told her if she tried hard enough she could probably understand a little bit of what she was reading. This will be up to her. We said good bye to her and several other children in the post op area waiting to leave. Alec had a few more soccer balls left to give out along with the baseball mitts that the O'Brien boys gave us (thank you) and we were able to give them out. Of course they were all very thankful. (We have to leave for the final team party so this day will be in two blogs!) brigette&alec OpSmile NicaraguaMission Day 4 OpSmile Nicaragua
Today was the big day. Alec went in to the OR with his grandfather to assist him in repairing a cleft lip. The baby was 4 months old and so beautiful even with her very open cleft lip. The mothers are very young here and you could tell she was trying to be brave, but nervous. Alec put on his scrubs, hat, mask, footies and walked back to get scrubbed in. To be completely sterile for the OR you have to scrunb your arms, hands and fingernails with a special iodine soap. After you do this you cannot touch anything! The next step is to get the gown and gloves on that one wears to operate. Alec's grandfather had to keep reminding him to keep his hands up and not touch anything, even his mask, or he would contaminate and have to start over. Once scrubbed in we watched the baby get anestisized(fall asleep with medicine for surgery) and be preped for repair. Alec was right there learning along the way. At one point I noticed that he was breathing heavily, almost trying to catch his breath. This took me right back to when I was 13 and in the OR with my dad. The OR smells and then the site of the baby lying on the OR table with blood coming out of her lip can be overwhelming. My dad told Alec to sit down and put his feet up to keep from fainting. After about 15 minutes he felt like the fainting spell may have passed, so he got right back up again to learn and observe. One more time sitting with his feet up and then he was up again until the end. We have such an amazing and caring group of surgeons who have been working with OpSmile for a long time. In the meantime they have become very good friends with my father. Dr. Ringler from Seattle stood behind Alec to keep him strong and standing. He said later that he was pushing against his back so that maybe it would distract him. Alec watched the lip close and the baby was carried into recovery. Alec may now be the first ever 10 year old to scrub into an OR. With our laws back in the US this would not be allowed. So a very cool experience working alongside his grandfather and then followed by another, us carrying the baby back to his mother and witnessing the emotion of her seeing her baby for the first time without a cleft lip: priceless. The mom could not help by shed tears of joy and thankfulness. She could not say thank you enough. All around were in tears with her for one cannot help but feel her joy. And this is what Operation Smile is all about.
There were lots of news cameras and reporters in the OR area this morning, reporting on Nicaragua as part of the World Journey of Smiles. With that the D'Avilla family was also at the hospital. After a quick evaluation by my father it was decided that both should return next year for revisions in order to make Domingo's lip and Yilber's palate perfect. We thought that they were going ot be able to leave afer that, but one last listen to Yilber's lungs and the concensus was for him to be admitted for gook in his lungs and possibly asthma. Not what any of us wanted to hear for the family has already been at the shelter for one week. There middle son Bismark stayed at home and Mr. D'Avilla had to get back to work. Without work he cannot get paid. The very little they get paid feeds their family and that is about it! With tears, they agreed to stay. Yilber has to do regular breathing treatments for a few days and hopefully they will head home early next week. What I did not like is that this split the family - baby and Corina at the hospital, Doming and father back to the shelter. They did stay until the end of the day so we had a chance to play with Domingo. Mr. D'Avila also broke his tooth when eating a hard piece of fruit five months ago. His tooth was pulled out by our orthodontist with the concensus that he would never have the root canal and the repair of the tooth. Now they are back at the shelter. As the day winds down each day, the hospital becomes quiet and somewhat dark (another Ortega problem is that they are tying the cut back on electricity so he either shuts it down or the people turn them off early). The last of the children are in our play area finding things to hopefully distract them and their hunger. Mostly these are our older kids and they are just fine. Our high school students start their chats with the Nicaraguan students (of which over 100 turned out to translate for us this week) about normal high school stuff. It is a nice time to sit back and reflect on your day and all the good of working together. We say good night very tired tonight. With the early start and the late night, we look forward to some sleep and our last mission day. good night. brigette&alec November 15 OpSmileNicaraguaMission Day 3, OpSmile Nicaragua
Another great day at the hospital today... we took care of 22 children and all are doing well. It is amazing to see the young babies when we first get to the hospital in the morning, most smiling, some of them already crying because they have not had anything to eat. We have an incredible child life specialist who we work with alot because she is the one in charge of the toys and educating the families about surgery. Alec spent most of the day with her, especially entertaining a five year old boy Leo. he was born with a cleft palate and is a very happy kid. Alec loved playing with him because he was so engaging and happy. Not sure if we have shared this already, but the Nicaraguan people are so warm and loving. They are always smiling, very patient and very appreciative. The kids love being engaged in games and coloring as for some it is the first time they have been in a big play setting. I also think it is cool for them to be with each other because although they are meeting each other for the first time, they all can relate to what they are going through and they realize that they are not the only one who has a cleft lip and palate. It is an immediate support group and they are surrounded by people who care about them just for who they are. The parents also must feel a sense of relief having someone they can talk to who can relate. While Alec engaged himself working with the kids, I had a chance to go out with our new friend Lilly to purchase food for the D'Avilla family. I think I have mentioned in the other journals that Domingo Jose and Yilber, the children the Dye's hosted last spring. They have been at the shelter with the other families. Since they hold a special place in our hearts, I went to buy them some food, mostly rice and beans, so that they have enough food to feed their family. Since the election of Ortega, we have been told that the price of beans has gone up 200%. This is not good for this is their main source of protein. Meat is too expensive for them to buy. Needless to say they are going home with lots of beans!
Domingo and family were our guests tonight at the HIlton Princess where the team is staying. We had a special dinner in honor of my parents arrival into Nicaragua. They have had an incredible journey with lots of praises to the work of Operation Smile. Centers have been built and thousands of children transformed with the help of thousands of volunteers. They came to us from Bogata, Columbia. My father told some stories about his travels, one from Ethiopia that sticks in my mind when working with the kids. He said he met an 18 year old boy who had never had his lip repaired. My father asked him to shake his hand and look him in the eye. The boy kept looking down, hiding beneath his hat. After several reminders and practice to shake his hand with a firm handshake and look him in the eye, he finally started to do it. Then my dad asked him to promise him one thing. He would repair his lip if he promised to start working on his spirit. It was a nice reminder that although we can repair a lip quickly we have to remember as volunteers to help build their spirit by hugging them and giving them praises while interacting with them. If they can gain a bit of confidence while with us, this may go a long way in their complete transformation. He also told us he could not believe how poor Ethiopia was, a little scary even to walk through the hallways of the hospital because of how dirty it was. We heard about a newborn baby they found by the roadside with a bilateral cleft lip with the umbilical cord still attached. Again a reminder that in some of these countries these kids are considered a curse and with that they are left to die. Luckily this child was brought to the hospital where Operation Smile was working. We enjoyed our dinner with the team, my parents and Domingo and family. We even got a cake for Yilber so that we could sing to him for his first birthday! I am quite sure they enjoyed themselves. This may have been the first time they had ever been to a hotel much less had a chocolate birthday cake. I will share pictures with you when we get back!
November 13 day two mission NicaraguaHelllo everyone! We had another great day at the hospital, helping all of the kids on the schedule today which was about 24. We had one boy sneak a drink of water which luckily someone saw, so he had to wait until tomorrow. It is very hard for them to go without food and water all day long, but important for their safety while they are under anesthesia. I was unable to blog yesterday but hoping some of you got my email. It was a great first day, 22 children received surgery and Alec got right in there entertaining the kids and distracting them from nerves and hunger thoughts. He quickly bonded with Miguel and Jordy, a four year old and 11 year old boy both waiting for palate repairs. Luckily Operation Smile has been in Nicaragua for 14 years and lots of kids have had their lips repaired at an earlier age. Many times we will repair the lip, fit them for an opterator (a dental piece like a fake palate) and then they come back for the palate repair. Alec played alot of soccer with the boys in their room as well as games, puzzles and bubbles.. I think that really is the favorite around here! Thanks to all of you who donated toys and arts and crafts for the mission. We are putting them to great use! Today we had a special experience in that we were abole to see Corina, Domingo Jose and Yilber, the children from last spring who came to Norfolk for surgery. What an amazing reunion. They were so happy to see us, warm hugs and tears! They are especially missing the Dye family - Domingo actually broke down in tears stating that he want to move to the US and live with the Dyes. Pretty cool that the Dyes are forever in the hearts of a beautiful family in Nicaragua. They both look really good, Domingo gave us a good run at a pick up game of soccer with the rest of the kids waiting for surgery at the shelter AND Yilber was all smiles and very cute! Their father is here too and so grateful to the DYE family for watching over them last spring. We have invited them to the dinner tomorrow night at the hotel with the team and my parents, who will be here tomorrow night and on Thursday morning. They will stay with us here at the Mountealegre home tomorrow night. We are looking forward to being with them and catching up on their journey. I believe they are coming from Bogata. We spent most of the afternoon playing with the kids who arrived for surgery tomorrow. It has been nice doing that in the pm as we get to know the kids a bit and always get warm smiles from the parents when we visit them after surgery the next day. We again had an incredible group of high school volunteers, translating for us which is such a great help. It would be really difficult for us if they were not there. It helps Alec and I when we can grab them because we get to learn more about the kids we are playing with. Many of the children have the same long distance to come to get to the hospital and have had all of the same experiences in the challenges of having a facial deformity. Most of the kids are very shy at first, but then they warm up. This was not the case for little Mikey today - this boy is very loved as he is always smiling and very active. he is the youngest of three kids and at three years of age, full of himself! He was scheduled at the end of the day today and although Alec was eager to see him when he came out of the OR, we left the hospital before he woke up. We will see him bright and early tomorrow. We hope that all of you had a great day! tune in tomorrow night ( I think we have this blog thing under control now..) Alec is working on his homework but will soon be going to bed. good night. November 12 opsmilenicaraguawe got on and we are here! Alec and I arrived yesterday at about 2p.m. We were picked up by Lilly, the president of our Nicaraguan Board and we will be staying with her and her family this week as the hotels are booked. They have two sons Gabriel, 10 year old and Alvero, 12 year old. Alec is thrilled to have met some friends and luckily, they love soccer! They go to the American Nicaraguan International School which is here for American Embassy children and other families here working from other countries. There two friends are from Miami and Brazil. We hope to get over to the school this week to meet the students and share what we are doing with OpSmile at home. Gabriel likes our running idea and since he is the VP for his students council, he thinks he might be able to set it up. Tune in later for that.
This family live well, but just outside their driveway and everywhere is extreme poverty. The schools here are not good and there is little work. The new government that just took over is corrupt, which means they spead money on things that are not useful to the country. They are in power for the next five years, so the people are a bit afraid of the economy here. Since their earthquake in 1972, Nicaragua has gone through many ups and downs, including the Sandanistas taking over and starting a war in 1978 which made many people flee the country. These people started coming back in the early 90's to build their country again, but it is hard. Although there is alot of poverty, the people seem happy and are very nice. Doctors here only make $300 a month, teachers $150. The people who were working to rebuild a church that we visited yesterday only get paid about $3 a day. Aren't we lucky that our lemonade stands do so well!
We are leaving for the hospital now and the schedule has 25 kids on it. We screened 225 kids last week and we will take care of 108 of them. The rest are at a nearby shelter and we are told this is where Domngo is too! OK. We have to go! Have a great day! November 10 opsmilemexicoHello everyone. Alec and I leave tomorrow at 6 a.m. but not for Mexico... we had a last minute change on Saturday and are now headed to Nicaragua. Why? The number of children that showed up in Puerto Vallerta was low and they thought we might not be put to work for the whole week. The good thing is that all of the children who did show up will get their surgeries. So, make sure you look on the map and find Nicaragua. We have been told that Domingo Jose and his brother Yilber, who the Dye family hosted last spring, will be at the hospital for follow-up. We are excited to see him and to pass along everyones hellos. We will take plenty of pictures. We have also been told that their youth program is very strong in Managua. Three of the high schools have Happy Clubs and we are looking forward to meeting some students and finding out what they do to help the children of Operation Smile. YOu can be sure we will let them know what Alanton and all of the schools in Hampton Roads are trying to do by running for smiles with Shamrock's Final Mile. OK. we hope to write again tomorrow night from Managua. They screened 225 children on thursday and friday and surgeries start on MOnday! good night. brigette and alec November 08 opsmilemexicoanother test to be sure we are linked in and know how this blog thing works. Thanks to Tom Stahl for his email out to his fifth grade students for old baseball gloves and anything little that might be sitting around the house i.e. stickers, bubbles, markers, paper. We will be in Stahl's class at the end of the day tomorrow working on some colorful art for the walls of the hospital. If anyone's kids wants to add be sure you put their names at the bottom and virginia beach, virginia. ok. if some of you let me know this is working that would be great. two days and counting till lift off! brigette&alec November 07 OperationSmile MexicoHello all who I think may be interested in checking on how Alec and I are doing next week with Operation Smile Mexico as part of the 25th Anniversary initiative, WOrld Journey of Smiles. This is a test to see if it just might be possible that I have this all lined up for use. If you could reply that you received so that I know if we are ready. Alec and I will report daily on what is happening in Puerto Vallarta on the mission at the Regional Hospital. thanks! brigette & Alec |
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