Well it was a short night – 4 hours of sleep was about all I got so I was a little jet lagged today. Lipson (from last night’s video call) did come find me at breakfast – he’s energetic & an Op Smile Volunteer in another “state” in Brazil & came here to facilitate the church’s involvement in this mission. He only speaks Portuguese, so we did a lot of “google translate” on our phones to “talk”.
The “school” where we were doing the education sessions
& screening is only about a 10 min bus drive away & imagine my surprise
& excitement when I got off the bus & saw 3 young men – missionaries
walking into the school. I walked in with them & got their names &
where they were from & they said just last night they were asked to come
& help translate the educational sessions today! I was even more excited
& surprised when I walked inro the education session room & saw Sister
Wright from the video call last night – here to be my “personal translator” –
never had that before!!!
I got the update on the church’s involvement here – the
Church Humanitarian Dept is helping to fund several Op Smile missions in Brazil
to help the infrastructure of surgeries in this country-which is so wonderful.
It reminded me of my first mission that the church also supported in Kenya. Sis
Wright (from SLC) & her sweet companion of 5 days Sis Rueda (from Mexico)
said they were only asked last night to change their schedule to help this week
😊
and that they are also asking for members to help volunteer tomorrow at
screening. In the morning we started w/ 3 Elders two from Utah (Kamas by us in
Midway & Syracuse), the 3rd was from Spain plus the 2 sisters.
Mid-day we got 2 more Elders – Elder Chase from Logan – Doug’s hometown &
the other from Texas. There are 170 missionaries in this mission which includes
a large area of the Amazon & the mission headquarters are 10 hours away in Manaus.
This mission is going to be split July 1st simply because of the
large geographical area it covers. They have 10 missionaries in Porto Velho
& we had 7 of them helping us. They were all so helpful & nice. Sis
Wright told me that the church is struggling in this area with member
engagement and activity often because of peoples need to work. There are 6 congregations
in this stake(diocese) and each has attendance of 30-50 members who attend
regularly, There have been conversations of changing it from a “Stake” to a
district” which has caused a bit of a “call to action” for church members to
increase their participation. They are hoping that helping their neighbors and
volunteering with this mission will spark some enthusiasm for service.
Sis. Wright sat by me as my Translator for the opening
meetings which was an explanation of the Champion program (which I was already
familiar with from Guatemala). Ambra did part of the presentation, so it was in
English translated to Portuguese. The program intro was really well done &
explained the need for programs like these as in most areas of Brazil patients
& their families live in remote areas & have to travel by walking,
crossing rivers, and riding buses for many hours to get to the “larger cities”
for care. Training teams in smaller areas multiplies the access – after
training one trained plastic surgeon can potentially perform 200-300 surgeries
a year in the right environment &
with the support of anesthesia, nursing
etc. The videos of patients in this area needing help were very moving
reminding me of the original Op Smile tag line “Changing Lives One Smile at a
Time” & here they say “A SMILE makes all the difference.” We were trained on the new electronic
healthcare record and training principles & evaluation. Later in the day we
had MANY classes – on occasion it felt like “powerpoint overload” & some were
in Portuguese so Sis Wright was translating ALL DAY! The difficult Airway
Management presentation was in Portuguese & I was surprised that with my
limited Spanish but strong knowledge of the content I was able to understand
some of it & anticipate what he was talking about – my own version of “predictive
English translation “simply because I know the steps of intubation, chest tube
placement etc. We also had a PALS review that I was very familiar &
comfortable with and understood the principles he was speaking about despite
the language difference 😊
News to me…or maybe I
didn’t pay attention in the emails but I guess I am now part of the Brazil Champion
Program??? And committed to coming here once a year – the travel certainly is
not as convenient as Guatemala was but the needs are the same & the people
here are lovely,
We finished about 6 pm & were to have a Team meeting at
8. The missionaries would also be attending that so I offered to take them all out to dinner
nearby in the 90 min or so we had. They could pick the spot & we ended up
at a hamburger place withing walking distance so I took the 7 of them plus
Lipson out to eat. After our burgers we got Acai at another place on the walk
back. They were a really great group of young adults here as missionaries to
“just serve” & teach people about Jesus. They jokingly said “so this is what it is like
to be on a mission in the states where there are members who treat you to
dinner”. I was so happy I could do that! During dinner Pres. Rocha sent me a
message & wants me to meet him at the Church building tomorrow with the
sister missionaries as my translators to talk about the humanitarian needs of
people in his area. I am SO EXCITED to meet him & hear about the people in
this are that “we”(my generous friends) can help <3 . We got back to the
hotel by 7:40 & the Team mtg didn’t start until 8:30 & it was 10:30
when it ended after everyone introduced themselves & they went over the
“preliminary” schedule for the week. We also got our team shirts one for
screening & another for the last day.
By that time I was REALLY TIRED & as I was going to my
room a group invited me to join them for dinner but I politely declined…all I
could imagine was my pillow & my bed & I knew as is Latin American
style they would be out until after midnight. My roomie Jumi, who is an
Anesthesiologist, on the mission & from Paraguay joined them. I showered, talked to Doug & am headed to
bed for a real full nights sleep. I am really feeling like I “belong” on this
mission and am so glad I am here – It’s Screening Day tomorrow….often chaotic
& always uplifting to see the sweet families & kids. Good Night!
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