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!