I got a good nights sleep last night, had packed my backpack before bed & that set me up for a GREAT DAY & WONDERFUL NIGHT 😊
A few “catch up things from yesterday – I also met Brother “Carlos”
who is in charge of LDs Helping Hands in Northern Brazil – such a nice man
& he was also on the video call the other night. We took a photo together that
I posted on social media. Also I did not give the “Acai” it’s full credit..I didn’t
realize that it is grown here in Brazil & actually in this Northern part of
the country (or so I am told).
Breakfast was at 7 & the bus was to leave at 7:45. There
is mostly very Brazilian breakfast options but I am good with my “mission standard
breakfast of scrambled eggs on a piece of toast with a slice of cheese on it –
perfect for me. They do have some fruit – bananas & apples and also a jar
of….BRAZIL NUTS!!! So I put a few of those in a baggie for an afternoon snack.
The drive to the hospital was uneventful however they parked
the bus in the opposite side of the street that the hospital is on & as I
went to the front of the bus this sweet Brazilian team member grabbed my arm to
be sure I crossed the street with her safely dodging the cars & motorcycles
😊
Screening was all set up & organized which was wonderful. I went into the “Nursing
Room” to do vital signs & heights & weight on all the kids. It was fun
to “be in the thick of it” because often I get other assignment on screening day
so I enjoyed this one & seeing all the cute kids coming thru. It also
helped me get to know the other nurses who will be in surgery &
pre-op/post-op. S far I have not met the PACU person I will be training but I
have met my other international volunteer Norina who is from Toronto Canada
& very nice.
We saw our first patient at 10 am & I was AMAZED at how
well these first 10 kids all did, very few tears, sweet moms & the local
nurses would sing or get them laughing to keep them distracted. I took a few
photos – one with Jovanna a cute lil girl who needs a lip repair with a sweet
mama. They had traveled 28 hours by bus from a state in south Brazil just hoping
she could get a lip repair. She is staying with the friend of a cousin here. I
could tell the mama was tired & she said that they had gone to that house
to change their clothes & “get dressed up for the doctors” – melted my
heart. I just wanted to bring them back to the hotel with me. 28 hours on a bus
is like driving to the Midwest from California. I will be praying she will be
on Saturdays surgery schedule – I am pretty confident she will.
As time went on even the toddler kids were good -they would put their hand out for the
oximeter after I showed it to them on my finger & were pretty good with the
“hug” of the blood pressure cuff. BY 11:30 we had screened 26 patients which I
thought was a good pace & we had a good system. One of the missionaries was outside our door
& would receive the patients to be screened & let us know someone was
waiting & we rotated them in. We had 2 Vital Sign stations plus a weighing
station & moved them all thru quite nicely. Yassmin was a little one that
stols my heart…her 5th birthday is tomorrow & she was in a cute
teal dress. She needs a palate repair as it had opened up impacting her speech
& eating. She was SOOOOO CUTE & reminded me of my Charlotte.
We actually had all 10 of the local missionaries helping
today so I met the other 3 young men who are all native Brazilians &
equally as nice. It was warm in the screening area so each time I went to get a
water & grabbed a bunch to keep them all hydrated as well. We also has 6
helping hands volunteers -both men & women her to help their “neighbors” as
they said. I had Sis Wright put some basic phrases on a piece of paper for me
so I can at least communicate “good morning, introduce myself etc”
By 12:30 we had screened 43 kiddos so 17 more in an hour; which
seemed like a really good pace to me. It was energizing teamwork between all of
us in the room. Everyone is her for the same reason – to help these kids &
families get care. By noon some people were breaking for lunch & the patient
flow slowed a little. I am told that the food they are bringing in for us to
eat is a very standard “main meal” here…a bowl with rice, spaghetti noodle
& beans (yep lots of carbs) and then either some beef in sauce or chicken
in a sauce & they have a veggie option too. It was offered yesterday &
today & will be every day I am here I assume. It did not look bad but I
happily packed my peanut butter sandwich & ate that; which made me realize
I pretty much only eat PB Sandwiches (no jelly) on mission trips!
Aside from the 28 hours bus ride patient we also saw 3 patients
from Bolivia (which is a close neighboring country) and one from Venezuela which
is FAR away & someone said they may have been sponsored on a flight to get here?
We also had several Indigenous families from communities along the Amazon
river.
Our education yesterday & todays screening is at a
private jr high/high school & yesterday I thought maybe it was a “school
for athletes” cause all the kids were in red sweat pants & a white shirt w/
the school logo & their name. Come to find out today those our “typical
school uniforms” and it is a private military school. My hot tip & how I
connected the dots was seeing one of the students arriving and then “saluting”
his teacher while standing at attention. Plus the teacher had his name Sargent….on
his shirt. Bad guess yesterday!
One of the OP Smile directors from Brazil came in during a
time when we had a “lull” & shared some really interesting info with us…Brazil
actually has 7000 plastic surgeons in the country which is the 2nd
highest # of Plastic Surgeons in a
country after the USA – however they are all in the ‘Southern states” of Brazil
like Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo doing Botox & cosmetic surgery with patients
lining up to get in. Only 0.4% are in the northern states =28 for a huge
geography & they all have successful private practices & make good $$$.
So recruiting them to learn and do “volunteer palate work” is tough. Op Smile
looks for & recruits that “diamond in the rough” plastic surgeon & essentially
“courts them “ to take on this opportunity & work in this environment. She
said it is a great opportunity for them to learn from world class surgeons from
other countries & those who do come for this type of training return to
their work after the mission training experience “changed” it elevates them as
people-which I think it does for all of us here. It also makes sense why here
we are doing our days of surgery Sat & Sun so that these surgeons are away
from their practices a minimal number of days. She also said in this state of
Rodonia 200 km is “your neighbor” and just the state of Rondônia top to bottom
is 1000 km or about 620 miles. It was a very interesting lesson…
We finished screening at 3:30 pm & saw 72 pts total. It
makes me a lil sad because I think we are only expecting to do 35-40 cases in
the 2 days – so some of these little ones will have to wait ☹.We
got back to the hotel & some of us went over to a nearby grocery store –
they were getting beer & going to enjoy the pool. I got myself some Coke
Zero & came back to the room to empty my backpack, have a snack, start this
blogpost so maybe I could get caught up and get ready to meet the sister
missionaries to go meet Pres. Rocha.
I just returned from our time at the church & will make
a separate entry for that time & experience
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