I made it home safely and uneventfully. Of course, I have immediately been swept up into the craziness of life. Instead of doing a picture post, I am directing you to my picture sight:
www.flickr.com/photos/vanvoorhis
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Too busy to upate!!
We have been putting in around 13-14 hour days every day. It is exhausting, but very rewarding. A typical day goes as follows:
5:30---wake up
6:00--breakfast
6:30--leave for hospital
6:45--round on patients in the hospital (post op)
7:30--start surgeries
--we do about 8 surgeries a day
7:00-7:30---leave the hospital
8:00--dinner at the hotel
--we usually gather around in the evenings and lounge around, have some drinks and talk/laugh. We have a really good team. We also occasionally get massages at night---which are wonderful!
On Friday we have a short day and we leave to go to the eastern highland region. It is supposed to be very nice and relaxing.....I can't wait! Then it's back for another week of surgeries.
One of the week's highlights: We had a big dinner on Monday night---very fancy---where there were representatives from the Ministry of Health, the American Embassy, and a bunch of other organizations. It is all very political here and there is a lot of propaganda. So the deputy minister of health got up and gave about a 45 minute long speech (because it was being filmed). He proceeded to talk about Operation of Hope and working together with a lot of other organizations. He said, "We have lots of intercourse--physical, spiritual, emotional....." So now we are constantly joking about all the physical intercourse that we have. It was pretty funny----we all had to really try hard not to laugh.
Anyway, I wish I could upload pictures---but it just takes too long and I have very limited time. I hope I can update this weekend!
5:30---wake up
6:00--breakfast
6:30--leave for hospital
6:45--round on patients in the hospital (post op)
7:30--start surgeries
--we do about 8 surgeries a day
7:00-7:30---leave the hospital
8:00--dinner at the hotel
--we usually gather around in the evenings and lounge around, have some drinks and talk/laugh. We have a really good team. We also occasionally get massages at night---which are wonderful!
On Friday we have a short day and we leave to go to the eastern highland region. It is supposed to be very nice and relaxing.....I can't wait! Then it's back for another week of surgeries.
One of the week's highlights: We had a big dinner on Monday night---very fancy---where there were representatives from the Ministry of Health, the American Embassy, and a bunch of other organizations. It is all very political here and there is a lot of propaganda. So the deputy minister of health got up and gave about a 45 minute long speech (because it was being filmed). He proceeded to talk about Operation of Hope and working together with a lot of other organizations. He said, "We have lots of intercourse--physical, spiritual, emotional....." So now we are constantly joking about all the physical intercourse that we have. It was pretty funny----we all had to really try hard not to laugh.
Anyway, I wish I could upload pictures---but it just takes too long and I have very limited time. I hope I can update this weekend!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Screening Day
Today was our screening day. We got to the hospital around 7AM and set up in order to start seeing patients. We had about a 10 hour day (with about 20 minutes for lunch) and screened around 100 patients. We ended up scheduling around 55 surgeries over the next two weeks. We anticipate scheduling about 30 or so more because there is a feature about our group on the news tonight and we anticipate many more people showing up at the hospital.
There were a lot of sad stories today---children whose families had traveled hundreds of kilometers just to find out that there was nothing that could be done. Some of the cases were heartbreaking. We saw a few kids with some of the strangest looking deformities I have ever seen. And a lot of people showed up with surgical needs that were not within the advertised limits of the surgeons---but they thought they'd give it a shot anyway.
It was a lot of work and we are all exhausted. Tomorrow we have 7 cases and I am excited to start. It will be interesting though because I am going to be one of the only nurses in the whole hospital--which is really a scary thought. The nurses at the hospital aren't officially on strike--however, it costs more for the to get to work (because of gas prices) than they get paid---so it doesn't make sense to go to work. We found out that it costs $160 U.S dollars just to fill a small Honday---yikes!
Tonight we will have dinner at the hotel again--and then probably retire early.
There were a lot of sad stories today---children whose families had traveled hundreds of kilometers just to find out that there was nothing that could be done. Some of the cases were heartbreaking. We saw a few kids with some of the strangest looking deformities I have ever seen. And a lot of people showed up with surgical needs that were not within the advertised limits of the surgeons---but they thought they'd give it a shot anyway.
It was a lot of work and we are all exhausted. Tomorrow we have 7 cases and I am excited to start. It will be interesting though because I am going to be one of the only nurses in the whole hospital--which is really a scary thought. The nurses at the hospital aren't officially on strike--however, it costs more for the to get to work (because of gas prices) than they get paid---so it doesn't make sense to go to work. We found out that it costs $160 U.S dollars just to fill a small Honday---yikes!
Tonight we will have dinner at the hotel again--and then probably retire early.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Safari
Today was an amazing day! First, let me give a brief recap of last night. We had an awesome dinner at the hotel---total bill for the 10 of us to eat a 3 course meal plus alcohol ($30). Afterwards a bunch of us went to the hotel's bar and sat on a beautiful patio with a single table for our group. Our waiter, Sylvestor (by the end of the night we were calling him Sly), was so friendly. They really didn't have much in the way of alcohol at the bar, so we ended up doing a lot of tequila shots. We even had one of the ministers of health (who I am sure was there spying on us instead of just happening to be at the bar by himself)---doing tequila shots. It was hysterical---he'd never done a shot before, let alone licking his hand, pouring on salt and then putting a lemon (they didn't have limes) in his mouth. We definitely bonded with him and he wanted to invite us all to his house from a barbecue ("in our country, we call them a bri").
After a few hours at the bar we convinced one of the hotel managers to let us go to the swimming pool on the 12th floor. To be fair, it does say the pool hours in the hotel information, but on the side it says "if these hours are inconvenient and you wish to swim at another hour, please contact the on duty manager"---they are very accomodating here in Zimbabwe! 4 of us---one of the facial reconstruction surgeons, one of the chief resident surgeons, my roommate and myself went up to the pool and had so much fun! We went from the sauna to the pool and back multiple times. And we were all so tired that we were just being weird!
This morning I woke up and a few of us decided to go to a game park about 40km from Harare. We took a cab from the hotel (one of the hotel's cars). It's sad, because they have such a fuel shortage that the guys from the hotel had to wait there all day for us because it was too expensive to drive back to the hotel. So myself and another girl gave the hotel drivers our ipods so they could have something to do all day. We did sooo many things....I couldn't even begin to describe, so I will give you some bullet highlights (and accompany pictures at a later time):
-went around to the wild animal orphanage---got to feed some tamarinds (mini monkeys with the cutest little faces), some apples. We also fed a donkey. This one frisky donkey got into part of the zebra population and now they have little zonkeys---donkeys with zebra stripes---they are really funny looking
-a little marmoose (i think that was the name) came trotting over to us and tried to climb up my pants---he was cute though
-stopped for tea and cookies (and bought some things at the little store) and there was a 4 1/2 month old orphaned monkey (I think it was a baboon) named Sheila. She was the cutest thing ever and ran around like a frisky cat. When we first met her she was humping the dog's leg. And then she was climbing into our laps and letting us hold her and feed her apple pieces. I swear, it was the highlight of my life (well, not really, but I love monkeys---especially baby monkeys) I hope she doesn't have ebola because she looked a lot like the monkey from Outbreak.
-We went on a canoe ride and saw elephants drinking from the river as well as zebras.
-After the canoe ride we got to ride elephants!! It was so cool but also the single most terrifying thing of my life. Our elephant was a 15-year-old adolescent named Gonzo. She was crazy and kept trying to shake us and run ahead of the other elephants. I almost started crying at one point---but at the same time, it was so amazing!! We also got to take pictures with them up close.
-We also got to come face to face with a bunch of lions---Brutus and Brian the Lion, and a few females. One second the guide was telling us to scratch them through the fence (because they are "domesticated") and then the next minute the lion was roaring......and that is pretty freaky! I have some amazing video!! It was crazy.
-We also went on an open air game drive and saw a ton of cool things. It was so gorgeous.
Tomorrow we get to work for real. We are all pretty adjusted to the time difference so now we are going to be screening the patients tomorrow all day and then start surgeries on Monday. It should be great!!
Thanks for keeping me in your prayers.
After a few hours at the bar we convinced one of the hotel managers to let us go to the swimming pool on the 12th floor. To be fair, it does say the pool hours in the hotel information, but on the side it says "if these hours are inconvenient and you wish to swim at another hour, please contact the on duty manager"---they are very accomodating here in Zimbabwe! 4 of us---one of the facial reconstruction surgeons, one of the chief resident surgeons, my roommate and myself went up to the pool and had so much fun! We went from the sauna to the pool and back multiple times. And we were all so tired that we were just being weird!
This morning I woke up and a few of us decided to go to a game park about 40km from Harare. We took a cab from the hotel (one of the hotel's cars). It's sad, because they have such a fuel shortage that the guys from the hotel had to wait there all day for us because it was too expensive to drive back to the hotel. So myself and another girl gave the hotel drivers our ipods so they could have something to do all day. We did sooo many things....I couldn't even begin to describe, so I will give you some bullet highlights (and accompany pictures at a later time):
-went around to the wild animal orphanage---got to feed some tamarinds (mini monkeys with the cutest little faces), some apples. We also fed a donkey. This one frisky donkey got into part of the zebra population and now they have little zonkeys---donkeys with zebra stripes---they are really funny looking
-a little marmoose (i think that was the name) came trotting over to us and tried to climb up my pants---he was cute though
-stopped for tea and cookies (and bought some things at the little store) and there was a 4 1/2 month old orphaned monkey (I think it was a baboon) named Sheila. She was the cutest thing ever and ran around like a frisky cat. When we first met her she was humping the dog's leg. And then she was climbing into our laps and letting us hold her and feed her apple pieces. I swear, it was the highlight of my life (well, not really, but I love monkeys---especially baby monkeys) I hope she doesn't have ebola because she looked a lot like the monkey from Outbreak.
-We went on a canoe ride and saw elephants drinking from the river as well as zebras.
-After the canoe ride we got to ride elephants!! It was so cool but also the single most terrifying thing of my life. Our elephant was a 15-year-old adolescent named Gonzo. She was crazy and kept trying to shake us and run ahead of the other elephants. I almost started crying at one point---but at the same time, it was so amazing!! We also got to take pictures with them up close.
-We also got to come face to face with a bunch of lions---Brutus and Brian the Lion, and a few females. One second the guide was telling us to scratch them through the fence (because they are "domesticated") and then the next minute the lion was roaring......and that is pretty freaky! I have some amazing video!! It was crazy.
-We also went on an open air game drive and saw a ton of cool things. It was so gorgeous.
Tomorrow we get to work for real. We are all pretty adjusted to the time difference so now we are going to be screening the patients tomorrow all day and then start surgeries on Monday. It should be great!!
Thanks for keeping me in your prayers.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Made it to Zimbabwe
The flight from London to Harare was relatively painless. I took an Ambien and slept most of the trip, which was really nice. When we arrived we were greeted by someone from the Ministry of Health. They waived our visa fees and we were allowed to come through the "diplomat/vip" line. We were then escorted to our hotel in cars from the hotel where we are staying---the Meikles (pronounced mee-kles). It is a very nice hotel. We are on the "Executive Club" level. Our rooms are great and the bathrooms are gorgeous. Our room overlooks a park with jacarinda trees in full bloom (they are purple and full of flowers---they are all over the city). We showered and napped for a little bit. And then we were each scheduled for massages!! It was glorious. The exchanged rate has skyrocketed even in the last 3 weeks---it is now 650,000 Zim dollar to one US dollar. So everything is very cheap for us. The massages were on the 12th floor by the rooftop pool. Here were some interesting things I noted about my massage:
-the woman instructed me to leave my bra and panties on---but then she proceeded to pull down my underwear and give me a butt massage with oil for about 10 minutes. It actually felt really good after being on the plane for so long.
-they have a variety of beauty treatments available---they primarily consist of drug store brand lotions and Mary Kay was their premium line.
-She also was very vigilent about massaging "every" part of me---very attentive to details, including the insides of my ears.
-For about $5 with tip, I got an hour and fifteen minute massage. Not too shabby.
Now--without thinking that I am being too spoiled. We spent the rest of the day at the hospital organizing our supplies and arranging things for the screening day on Sunday, and playing an impromtu game of soccer with some of the pediatric inpatients. We will see all of the potential patients and then choose around 100 that we will be able to operate on. Unfortunately, we will have to turn many away. An interesting story. When we were changing money today, two of the guys from our group saw a 14-year-old girl that had a horrible cleft lip/palate. She was the daughter of the guy who was exchanging the money. They were ecstatic to learn about what we were doing and they will be coming on Sunday to be screened for potential surgery. What a blessing is that?
On our way home from the hospital we saw Robert Mugabe's (the president's) motorcade. He had about 12 cars total, including 2 open-aired military vehicles. It was crazy.
Now we are sitting in the lounge on the 11th floor of the hotel being served a cabernet from South Africa and treats. Literally as I've been sitting here, one of the guys from the hotel has come in 5 times--once to bring me wine, once to bring me a prepared plate of snacks, another to bring me a bottle of water (all unasked for)---and then twice just to check on me. I've been sitting here about 15 minutes. It is really nice.
Tomorrow is our only free day. We are going on a safari--which should be fun. It is about 45 minutes outside of Harare. Then we start screenings on Sunday and start operating on Monday. Pray that I recover well from jet lag!
Until next time!
-the woman instructed me to leave my bra and panties on---but then she proceeded to pull down my underwear and give me a butt massage with oil for about 10 minutes. It actually felt really good after being on the plane for so long.
-they have a variety of beauty treatments available---they primarily consist of drug store brand lotions and Mary Kay was their premium line.
-She also was very vigilent about massaging "every" part of me---very attentive to details, including the insides of my ears.
-For about $5 with tip, I got an hour and fifteen minute massage. Not too shabby.
Now--without thinking that I am being too spoiled. We spent the rest of the day at the hospital organizing our supplies and arranging things for the screening day on Sunday, and playing an impromtu game of soccer with some of the pediatric inpatients. We will see all of the potential patients and then choose around 100 that we will be able to operate on. Unfortunately, we will have to turn many away. An interesting story. When we were changing money today, two of the guys from our group saw a 14-year-old girl that had a horrible cleft lip/palate. She was the daughter of the guy who was exchanging the money. They were ecstatic to learn about what we were doing and they will be coming on Sunday to be screened for potential surgery. What a blessing is that?
On our way home from the hospital we saw Robert Mugabe's (the president's) motorcade. He had about 12 cars total, including 2 open-aired military vehicles. It was crazy.
Now we are sitting in the lounge on the 11th floor of the hotel being served a cabernet from South Africa and treats. Literally as I've been sitting here, one of the guys from the hotel has come in 5 times--once to bring me wine, once to bring me a prepared plate of snacks, another to bring me a bottle of water (all unasked for)---and then twice just to check on me. I've been sitting here about 15 minutes. It is really nice.
Tomorrow is our only free day. We are going on a safari--which should be fun. It is about 45 minutes outside of Harare. Then we start screenings on Sunday and start operating on Monday. Pray that I recover well from jet lag!
Until next time!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
London
I am in London at the 1st class lounge---it is pretty nice. They have big shower areas so I was able to shower and freshen up. The internet is free and there is lots of great food and free drinks--pretty nice. Everyone from the team is here and we are all traveling together to Harare---another 10 hour flight. We leave in about 5 hours. I finally met up with the girl I was flying with out of LAX and we got along very well. We also sat next to another woman who was flying to Budapest where her husband (a special effects makeup artist) is shooting a movie. We had a good flight, although I didn't sleep much.
My understanding is that tomorrow we will relax in the morning---we have massages scheduled. And then have lunch. In the afternoon we will head over to the hospital to get a better layout and figure out the gameplan and get organized. Then we will have a free day on Saturday where many of us will be going on a safari. Then on Sunday we have the screening for all the patients and begin surgeries on Monday.
My understanding is that tomorrow we will relax in the morning---we have massages scheduled. And then have lunch. In the afternoon we will head over to the hospital to get a better layout and figure out the gameplan and get organized. Then we will have a free day on Saturday where many of us will be going on a safari. Then on Sunday we have the screening for all the patients and begin surgeries on Monday.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Operation of Hope
As some of you may know, in a few short weeks (October 3) I will be leaving for Harare, Zimbabwe for approximately 2 1/2 weeks to assist with pediatric cleft lip/palate and facial reconstruction surgeries. I am very excited, but also very nervous!! I am going to share in a following (protected) post some of the more personal details of my trip---but I wanted to share a little bit about the organization that I am going with!
Meet George
Baby George is one of the 45 proud children Operation of Hope recently helped in our first ever trip to Zimbabwe, Africa.
With plans to return next October targeting 80+ new children, George is the picture perfect example of a beautiful baby and how your $250 dollars can change the path of a child forever. George and his family traveled over 6 hours by bus with the deep hope they could correct their childs condition which the mother incorrectly believed was a result of the child sucking his thumb in the mothers womb.
With a total income of $10 dollars a month, George’s family knew they could never afford the surgery needed for their child. After connecting with Operation of Hope and their visit to Africa, George and his family left knowing all efforts were truly a blessing.
And here's George 3 days after surgery!
Another child that has become very special to Operation of Hope is Beloved.
Beloved was in a horrible accident at the age of 10. After the recent war in Zimbabwe, Beloved was playing in a field and accidentally encountered a land-mine which sadly destroyed the lower portion of his face and mouth. At the time, the local doctors tried to help him but as you can see, despite their efforts, results fell far short. In a futile attempt, local doctors even used a portion of his stomach muscles to reconstruct his lips.
Fortunately, a team of surgeons at UCLA have agreed to volunteer their time and talent to help Beloved. He will be spending a year in Southern California living with the Director of Operation of Hope (who was recently voted one of Oprah's "60 Most Influential Women"--and got to spend a weekend with her!) During this year he will be undergoing several major operations to correct his face--including a live tissue transplant. Imagine being in a country so far from your own, without your family and having to deal with this? I cannot imagine. We will be bringing Beloved home with us when we return on October 22 and he will hopefully be undergoing his first surgery some time during the first few days after arriving in the U.S.
I will keep you all updated with more upcoming details!
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