Medical Mission -Zimbabwe: Tuesday Goodbyes

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 19, 2010

Tuesday Goodbyes

We did 10 small procedures. Packed and began our goodbyes. For me the hardest goodbye was to Tinotenda. As soon as he saw me he wanted to go for a walk and put a death grip around my waist
We walked for a few minutes, but since I already started to cry he was a bit confused. I knealed down and hugged him and pealed his arms off before I burst into a full cry. Crying now typing. Have already began exploring if Makumbi has capacity to care for him. Mortality rates in Zimbabwe are 35 & 38 years for women & men. This is a harsh place for those with handicaps. Even a cleft lip is seen as punishment for doing something wrong. Most of the kids we saw the fathes had left as soon as they saw their child. So having CP most children either don't survive or are turned out to street at 18 and left to die. My heart breaks for this beautiful boy. Ok I an sobbing and can't see the computer.