Medical Mission -Zimbabwe: Safari

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.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Safari

Went on a safari today thanks to Veronica Swanson who encouraged me to do so. WOW So Col!!! We drove 2 hours from Harare, down a highway...then dirt road to the Imara Game reserve. We had tea, one has to be civilized about these sorts of things. Then hopped on a cart pulled by a tractor and off we went for 4 hours. First stop was an enclosure, (the only one) for the lion and lioness. We were seperated to prevent us from becoming lunch! I squatted down to take picture and was eye to eye with the big guy ...he growled very ferouisly. I would not want to come face to face for reals . These BIG VERY BIG game animals were feet away. from our tractor pulled cart.

The elephant walked right up to the cart and stuck his trunk in. Kinda scary. We ate lunch down by the river and had a great pirch as animals came to water and bath.

We returned to lodge for more tea. How Cool was that!