Medical Mission -Zimbabwe: Last Day at Makumbi

Mission trip to Zimbabwe

I have been invited to be a member of a medical team sponsored by Operation of Hope. This is a family run foundation started by a plastic surgeon from Longview, WA. I depart from Portland, OR Oct 6, 2010. The first leg of my journey takes me to NY. My friends Philip and Periuza Wegner will meet me and send me onto Johannesburg, South Africa. A 15 + hour flight UGH...compression hose here I come. I have a short layover then a final flight to Harare.
Once in Harare we will be setting up at Harare Central a large government hospital. We hope to complete 70 cleft lip and palate surgeries over a 2-week span. Children will travel from all over Zimbabwe to have these surgeries performed for free by an American medical team. Apparently there are no plastic surgeons trained to perform these surgeries in Zimbabwe
My last week in Zimbabwe will be spent 60 miles away in Makumbi a Jesuit run orphanage and school. I get to do my favorite thing hug babies and children! My travels home bound take me to Ethiopia, Amsterdam, and then finally back in the Pacific N.W.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Last Day at Makumbi

This was my last full day at Makumbi Mission. While I knew from Jane and Philip that I wanted to come to Makumbi...I did not anticapate how powerful an experience it would be. I can draw comparisons to both St Mary's Alaska where I was as a JVC in the mid 70's and my trips to Peru, but there has been something totally African and unique to my experience here in rural Africa. I can feel it but I am not sure I can yet put words to it. I can safely say Africa has drawn me in. I hope and anticipate this won't be my last trip to Africa. There are many doors along the way on our journey of life, I am happy I opened this door and came to Zimbabwe. Certainly there are many things one can say about life in Zimbabwe: failed state, beauty, wild animals, oppression, poverty, dictator, sun, ....but I will remember the spirit and voices of the people joyfully singing. And the desperate embraces of the orphaned children.
I will forever remember Tinotenda.
Tozonana Zimbabwe
(Until we meet again Zimbabwe in Shona)