Medical Mission -Zimbabwe: Set up day....almost

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.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Set up day....almost

We arrived at Harare Central Children's Hospital at 9 am to set up. We were unable to enter the clinical area of the hospital for 4 hours. Protocol is of utmost import here and something has gone wrong internally. We are unsure if we will be granted permission to use the hospital and perform surgeries.
After 4 hours were allowed to move our supplies closed to the OR theaters.
There is a meeting Sunday AM at 8 wit the health minister, the administrator , the matron and the director of our program and the two surgeons.
We are hopeful that we will only lose a day and hit the road at full tilt on Tuesday.

Todo we are not in Kansas!!!!