Day 8 - Final Day

We have arrived safely after leaving Managua this morning on our 8am flight. We had a great evening with my mom's friend, Arnolodo. He came to get us at our hotel and gave a 1 1/2 hour tour by car of Managua. He shared with us history of the city from architecture, politics and last earthquake in the 70's. We really enjoyed hearing all he shared with us. After our tour we headed to a delicious steak house for a wonderful meal, headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Well what can I say other than it has been such an amazing experience for all three of us!! We feel so fortunate to have been given the opportunity to help out on this mission. Thank you to Brigette Clifford who facilitated this whole trip for us and of course to the mission team who made it so fun while we were there! Hope you all have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I have enjoyed writing in it! Thanks again to all who sent comments, we loved hearing from home! As sad as we were to leave, it is nice to be home!!

Until the next mission!!
-Crissy, Garrett, & Celia

Day 7 - School Presentation

Hello again on our last day of our trip! We left Chinandega this morning around 7am for the two hour ride to Managua. We went with a driver and an escort with us. As we drove I thought about the past week and how happy we all have been to come and experience another culture. Although the people here in Nicaragua are very nice, the country is very dirty and obviously very poor. You always see these road side shacks with little dirty looking little kids hanging outside. Something I've observed her in Managua, Chinandega and along the way was that as dirty as it is you always see ladies outside of their small shack homes sweeping. They sweep the dirt but the whole front is dirt! I suppose they are trying to maintain the little they have. Another observation that I haven't shared before is that there is always smoke in the air, at least up in Chinandega. They burn their trash alot, although you see so much trash everywhere so not sure about that! The whole week you see these little pieces of black floating in the air which is just burned particles. The smoke in the picture above was just one along the roadside on our trip this morning. Also the form of transportation is crazy. Kids on motorcycles squeezed between their parents, bikes with 3-4 people on it- even carrying a puppy on one I saw, lots of bike carts and lots of cars with kids and adults hanging out on the back. See picture above. No car seats let alone seat belts! So different than our world!

We arrive in Managua early so we decided to stop by a open market to pick up a few souviners. We only had about 15 minutes so we picked up a few things and off we went. When we arrived at the school, which was surrounded by a huge wall, we were detained at the security gates. They couldnt seem to find the person who we were supposed to meet, apparently they weren't familiar with the name. After about 10 minutes waiting,sweating and a few phone calls we were allowed to pass. We were greeted by an office administrator who brought us to meet the elementary level principal, Mr. Ramirez. He then took us to meet with their student council, about 8 or 9 of them. They ate their lunch while Celia gave a presentation about our school experience with Ops Smile and kids who have come on mission trips. They did a final mile last year but aren't sure if they will this year according to the principal. After a few questions and photos we were off for a tour. The facility is very beautiful, colorful and huge. The school goes from 3 year olds to high school! We saw most of it other than the high school part. We toured the cafe area which had Subway, Burger King and Pizza Hut. The kids were very excited to see that! We saw their pool, basketball courts, soccer fields, library, classrooms and more. It is mostly outside, all outdoor walkways but the classroom are individual rooms. I said how nice it was and he said that by March and April it gets really hot and the classrooms have no AC! Just fans and windows. Talk about hard conditions to teach and learn in! We ran in to Gabriel, the boy Garrett met up in Chinandega and quickly grabbed him and his buddies for a photo op! Garrett absolutely loved the school, he thought it was so cool! A driver was arranged for us to take us to the hotel so we said our goodbye's and off we went.

I asked the driver if it was safe for us to go back to the market later by ourselves since we didnt have a lot of time earlier and he said he would take us. We hit some big traffic jam so he took a shortcut through a shady part of town and locked the doors. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I was a little nervous for a second! But then we arrived safe and sound. I asked him if he would lock the doors since all our luggage was in the back and he said he'd have someone watch it. We strolled around, made a few more purchases and then we decide to go because we were starving! When we got back to the car he was giving some guy with a gun some money and so I asked him why he paid him and he said to watch our stuff. I said but the car was locked and he replied but they will break in and take everything! I was thankful he paid the guy needless to say! Anyway we headed to our hotel which is a major upgrade from our last one! The kids were very excited to see the hotel which had toucans and parrots in a huge cage as we pulled in. We grabbed some lunch, which was very good - filet mignon was at the buffet! Garrett again was in heaven! The kids decided to go swimming which is where there are as I write this to you all. We will meet up with my mom's friend, Arnoldo around 4:30 for a little tour of Managua and then to dinner. Will check back for the last time tomorrow! I've enjoyed writing this for everyone and for us as well! Thanks again for all the comments, we love them!

-Crissy, Garrett, & Celia

Day 6 -Surgery Day More Pictures

Day 6 - Surgery Day

Wow, what a day! We started early again, 5:30am wake up call. Once we reached the hospital we had a quick team meeting and found out one of the little boys at the shelter that had been screened for surgery passed away over night. He apparently had pnemonia. It was a very sad way to start our day, he was under one year old. We quickly tried to reshift our focus on helping those who were there for surgery today and got to work. Celia, Garrett, Kelly, Tori, Pam and I all went down to pre-op to see about entertaining the kids and distracting the moms too who were very stressed. We painted nails, made bead braclets, brought out coloring books and of course blew bubbles! It was a little hard for my kids because the majority of patients today were little babies so it was hard for them to find things to do with them. I focused on helping out the moms. We set up our Alanton banner sign with photos of kids from school and of the gowns. By the way, a big thanks again to all the Alanton 5th grade students for decorating these great gowns!! The staff loved them and I know the patient's families enjoyed them too!! It was so hot and humid in the hospital, no AC except in the OR and a little in the recovery room. So were were in these rooms or hall ways with lots of people just trying not to pass out!! We drank lots so it was all good in the end. Celia and I decided that we would go into to a surgery. So once it came time for our patient- a crazy name I can't remember how to write!- we got in our scrubs and wen to get her from her mom. Brian, our mission director, got Celia to carry her into the OR and get her on the table to get ready for her surgery. We went into an OR with two tables, both had plastic surgeons that we knew well from our hotel and that made us feel really comfortable. They were mostly a Canadian team, with 3 of them being from Vancouver- Jenny,Neil, and Anise. Once in there we were told they had to do dental first. The Nicaraguan dentist came in and must of pulled out like 5 or 6 teeth.!! We were sort of watching but I got interested in the lip repair of the girl on the other table. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about Celia and I going in but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Celia was a little more stand back and I got up close for awhile. Both of us were fine and thought it was really an amazing experience!! Garrett chose not to go in and I told him that was perfectly fine. He helped out in many other ways. He played with some kids, helped make no-no's which help keep the kids arms straight so they don't touch their faces, and helped move kids from recover to post-0p.

It was great to see these lips get repaired so quickly and transform the look of a child in almost an instant! We took a few pictures with our polaroid camera and gave a picture of their child to the moms. The post-op room was a little nutsy. There were like 8 or 9 beds per room and the poor little angels were not happy after surgery so they were crying like crazy. Moms looked a little stressed and to top it off it was horrifically hot in there! The kids and I found these little capsules you place in water and it forms a little animal shaped sponge. BINGO...I figured out right away that we could give them to the moms to dab their forheads and necks with the sponges to try to cool them off. Only 2 of the 4 ceiling fans were working in one of the post-op rooms. I think this helping and I would help fan the babies for the moms too. Unfortunately, some moms still covered their babies with blankets and we, Christy the nurse and I, thought it was crazy so we asked them to take them off. Alot of the little ones were not only miserable from the pain but were profusely sweating! Poor babies! Anyway that was most of our day, floating from pre-op, recovery and post-op. The highlight of the day of course was going into surgery, incrediblely facinating experience. One we will not ever forget!

We left around the 5:30pm, after we said our goodbye's to the staff we could see. Many doc's and nurses were still in the OR. It was sad to say goodbye and to not be able to stay the rest of the week to help. As we headed down the long outdoor corridor, out pops once of our favorite little girls, Nelly as we call her! We think her name is Yerling but couldn't understand her at screening so we just began to call her Nelly and she responded! We've seen her at the shelter too, she is precious and such a vivacous personality! Sorry we can't see her through her surgery. We also saw one of Garrett's soccer buddies, the one witht he face brace. Again a little sad to see these them and know we will never see them again. Hopefully we touched their lives as they have ours and they'll remember us too!

We headed back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went out to dinner with Pam, Kelly and Tori (student sponsor and high school girls we've been with all this time.) We shared our OR stories and wrapped up since everyone is up early tomorrow again. When we got back to the hotel, the plastic surgeon we didn't get to see when we left the hospital were there. We were glad to see them and to be able to say our goodbyes.

We are off to Managua in the morning, we will go directly to the America Nicaraguan school for a presentation to the SCA. We have plans to meet up with one of my mom's friends from the World Bank and have dinner with them tomorrow night. Then we will fly home Wednesday morning. I know this was a long one but it was such an amazing day, I couldn't leave out any details! Hasta manana, or until tomorrow!

-Crissy, Garret & Celia

Day 5 - Beach Day!

Today was our day off! We got to sleep in which was very nice and then we went to the beach. As we drove to the beach we would pass all these little shacks along the road with kids and families just hanging out. You see so much trash everywhere, no one throws away anything! It reminded me alot about my friend Jen Dye who hosted a mom from Nicaragua 2 years ago with her two sons who came to have surgery. The little boy, Domingo, would just eat something and then just drop the trash wherever he was. By the end of the 2 weeks the Dye's yard had a "Domingo" pile that was his personal dump! Anyway as you drive along you see lots of people on bikes, multiple people to a bike and the carts on wheel or horse pulled carts. You see lots of stray dogs, very thin horses, chickens and even an occassional pig along the roadside. We saw an active volcano from the distance, shown above, which Garrett thought was very cool! When we arrived at the beach there was a outside restaurant and a few umbrellas that we all quickly got under because the sun is so hot and the sand would literally burn your feet if you didn't wear flip flops! The sand was dark in color almost dirty looking. Most of us went into the water and cooled off, then came back for a nice luncheon together. Lots of us got the fresh fish and it was delicious! After lunch we lounged around a little more and some of us got back in the water for a last time. By the time we got back to the hotel we were all tired so we just showered and hung out. We regrouped for our team meeting/dinner at the other hotel and got down to business about the beginning of surgery week. Once all the announcements were made, we broke into individual groups to talk about what we all would be doing. The high school girls, us and another non-medical volunteer-Lucas - all spoke to Miguel the child life specialist to make our plans for the next day. Miguel was worried because the Scott's and Lucas are leaving on Tuesday. He only speaks spanish and is concerned how he will work with the high schoolers and their sponsor once we are gone. I assured him that there would be other volunteers that are bilingual from the American/Nicaraguan school. After eating pizza, which the kids were thrilled about, and having our meeting, we played the name game. We went around the room and introduced ourselves and let everyone know who we were routing for in the Superbowl, which going on while we were at the meeting. At the conclusion of our meeting, one of the in country Ops Smile coordinaters thanked us all profusely. She was very emotional and said that even if we only changed one life, it mattered. We have all made personal connections with these Nicaraguans we've met and we will all be forever changed! We quickly ended the meeting so everyone could get to sleep because we are back to early morning tomorrow - 5:30am! Garrett has already crashed and Celia wants to write something so here she is!

Hi its Celia! The Beach was so much fun today! We played Marco Polo and just hung out in the water. Our friend Kristy was amazing at this game. I think she should go pro! We also had delicious ice cream on the beach. We are so excited for sugery tomorrow!! Bye until tomorrow!!

Oh I forgot to metion the little parade the had right outside our hotel yesterday morning, sort of random but kind of cool too! I enclosed a picture above! Good night!!

-Crissy, Garrett & Celia

Day 4 - Surgery Announcements/OR Set up

Well today was very interesting for me more so than for the kids. Today was decision day for all those who were screened. So we went to the hospital and there some people there waiting for us that were locals. The majority of the other people were at a local shelter. The team quickly split up. Some went to set up the OR, some worked on the medical records and others of us went to tell the patients if they were selected. Garrett and Celia worked with some others to get charts ready and make id bracelets. I helped the group inform people if they were selected or not. So I went to the shelter while my kids stayed with the others back at the hospital. It was a little chaotic at first but I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Everyone was pretty calm, I guess I expected some very upset mothers/parents. Most of the shelter people were selected so there was only a small group who the Child Life Specialist, Miguel, spoke to explain why they weren't chosen. There was one mom in my group who was crying a little and when I asked her why she was crying she looked at her son, who was about 15 & was also teary-eyed, and she said he was nervous. I told her it would all be ok and that he was fortunate to be picked, she agreed. It was another scoorcher today so being at the shelter for a few hours was rough, we couldnt find some people and so they had to be tracked down which took awhile. Anyway back at the hospital, the kids were reading some of the files. One of the questions is why do you think your child has the deformity and the answers were very interesting! Some said it was God's will, others said solar eclipse and others and had no idea! They got a kick out of those answers! We met back at the hotel where I quickly showered and we went back to the shelter with the high schoolers. We were going to talk to some of the American Nicaraguan high schoolers who were here helping out from Managua. They exchanged ideas for fundraising and awareness. Garrett met Gabriel and JP who were sons of some influencial people in Managua who are big Ops Smile supporters. They quickly hit off and started playing soccer with some of his new friends he met on the screening days. Celia and the high school girls hung out playing with some of the little kids at the shelter. We then went to a birthday party for one of the biggest supporters of Ops Smile in Nicaragua, Jaffa. She lives on this huge plantation of 50 acres that are enclosed in a compound and who knows how much more outside the walls. It was gorgeous! We had a big pig roast, dancing and toured the grounds. Overall a great evening. Well tomorrow we are off to the beach for our day off! Check back soon! Still having an amazing time! Miss you all!

-Crissy, Garrrett and Celia

PS. Thanks for all the comments, we love to hear from you all back home!

Day 3 - Screening Day #2 Cont.

Day 3 - Screening Day #2

Another very exciting day! Started early again but today when we arrived at the hospital there was really no one there. We had our team meeting where they had Celia & Garrett show everyone the t-shirt gowns that Alanton 5th graders made. The team members loved them, and the kids will hopefully too!! After waiting about 2 hours two buses showed up with about 143 patients and their families! It got crazy quickly! There were some very adventerous little ones and others who were very shy. Celia helped again on the presentations by handing out toothbrushes and tooth paste. Talk about a swarm of people!! We were handing out all sorts of goodies and whoever had the goodies was extremely popular!! Some of the moms would drag their kids over to us and ask us for toys, and quickly our stash started to disapperar! Garrett once again found his soccer crew of boys who got Rush t-shirts again. Celia didn't find one favorite but lots of them! She mostly hung with the teenagers, Kelly and Tori, holding babies and playing with the kids. It was another very hot day and the inside conditions were pretty rough for some because it was really crowded and hot! We all painted alot of finger nails today, including Garrett! On break today, the kids actually ate the food!! We have been looking for a patient to come to Va. Beach for the Shamrock Final Mile, but most of the elementary age kids have already had their lips repaired and are back for touch up or a palate surgery. Most of the little babies are the ones that need the lip and palate surgery. We saw many very young mothers, as young as 13, and one mom who was 68! She had her 16 yr. old son there who is her 12th child! Some people travelled up to 72 hours to get to the screening. I held a lot of babies today and blew soooo many bubbles, it really is amazing how it helps calm them down! We wrapped up about 4:30 and got back to the hotel around 5pm. Garrett found a soccer jersey he wanted at a store on our block - only $9!! We will have a dinner with the team again tonight and tomorrow we got back to find out who was selected for surgery. The youth team, us and HS students, will go to a school tomorrow and then there is a big party at a plantation of one of the big supporters of Ops Smile. Once again let me tell you how great our team is! Everyone is so amazing and fun to work with! One of our favorites is Lucas, who is from NY/Paris, and is half Nicaraguan. He keeps us laughing all day long! There are two plastic surgeons who are really nice from Vancouver, Canada. Pam is the student sponser and she is wonderful too! They are too many to name but they all have made this experience incredible. We also found out today that we will go to the American school in Managua on Tuesday so we will only have one day of surgery on Monday. We are going to dinner soon so got to go for now.

Check back tomorrow!!

-Crissy, Garrett & Celia

PS. Garrett is begging to bring one of his soccer buddies, Felix, home with us! He doesn't have a cleft lip or palate but appears to have spinal problem. Celia of course still wants Grismelli from yesterday. I can't get Garrett to stop begging me!

Day 2 - First Screening Day

Hello again! Wow, what a day! We began our day at 5:30am and made it to the hospital by 6:45am. When we arrived they had set up some tents outside where people were already waiting for us. Very quickly the seats started to fill up under the tents. We spent majority of the day out there with the kids waiting to be screened while the medical staff was inside in different stations to evaluate the kids. The two high school students, shown above, had to do their presentation so Garrett and Celia assisted. They taught them about oral hygiene as well as fire safety- stop, drop and roll! Once we pulled out some crayons and paper the kids started coming over and we encouraged the others more shy to come along too. I helped the child life specialist, who is from Peru, to hold the little babies while he spoke to the parents and educated them on the process. It was so fun to hold these little bundles of joy! But true to the latin culture, they bundled them up in fleece pajamas with knit hats and it was over 90 degrees! Guess they didn't want them to catch a chill! Anyway, Garrett quickly got into his role of soccer player and befriened 3 boys that played with him all morning - Enrique, Jorge David and Justin. They all got Rush (Garrett's soccer league) t-shirts and little soccer balls to take home with him. Most of the older kids have had some cleft lip surgeries and were back for the palate surgery. Celia's new best friend was a little girl name Grismelli. No idea how to spell that one! She entertained her while her mom was listening to the child life specialist and she never left Celia's side again! She loved stickers and had them all over her and Celia! The kids and high schoolers, as well as many of us, handed out all sorts of goodies to the kids from little balls, coloring books, mardi gras beads, little cars, stuffed animals, bubbles- they love bubbles!, and much more. After a full day of entertaining we were all a little worn out, mostly from the heat! We took a break for lunch in the AC which was great but my kids didnt care for the food-shocker! Fortunately they had snacks that I had packed. Lots of these families come from very far away. One mom I spoke to had come from Honduras! Once all the 89 kids had been screened we headed out. By the end of the day Garrett looked like he had literally rolled around in dirt all day, he was covered head to toe in dirt! We went to one of the hotels to swim, which was so refreshing! We spent a few hours there and back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. By 9pm my kids were exhausted and ready for bed so we left quickly and got back tot he hotel. We repacked more goodies for tomorrow and we look forward to another day of screening. Tomorrow a bus will arrive with over 100 kids to be screened. Let the entertaining begin!!! To watch my kids help out these little Nicaraguans is so incredible, they have done so well and I am so proud of them! The team is incredible as well! Everyone has been so nice and encouraging to the kids.

Well until tomorrow! So glad we are here helping out!

-Crissy, Garrett & Celia

Day 1 - Travel Day

Hello everyone!
Well we made it! We left our house at 3:40 a.m. this morning, which for those of you who know me well was a very offensive time of day! Anyway off we went to the airport where we met up with several others from the Ops Smile team. We flew to Houston which took about 3 hours, landed with just a few minutes to make our next flight, did an OJ through the airport running at full speed and finally made it to our flight. Our next flight was about another 3 hours to Managua and from there we took a bus with more team members to Chinandega. We got to see a lot of the poverty and flith there is in Managua and it's outskirts as we drove out. We were on the bus for about another 3 hours and finally made it to Chinadega. We saw some wildlife along the way, a volcano and Lake Managua. Our team is split up into a few hotels so after we dropped off a group at the first hotel then we made it to ours. We are in "downtown" Chinandega and our room faces right out to the street. We are listening to nonstop honking as I am writing, hopefully we will get some sleep tonight! We will be going to our first team dinner shortly and then off to bed for a 5:30am wake up call! Tomorrow is the first day of screening so we are very excited to get started!

Hi its Celia. One of the things my silly mother left out was the most exciting thing of all. When we got to our room it was very hot, so we tried to turn the AC on when a little suprise appeared. Right as we got the AC to work a little orange gecko came scrableing out of the AC unit! My brother Garrett tried to get a picture, but it was too fast. Well that was just the beginning of our great adventure in Chinandega. Bye for now!

Hola es Garrett! Or in English, Hi it is Garrett! I'm so happy and fortunate to be here, in Chinandega, Nicaragua right now. I am having a great time so far except for the blazing heat. Other wise the sights are interesting, the team is really nice and most of us are in the same hotel. It is fun just to look out side and see everyone in thier cars, trucks, or on ther bycicles honking or screaming at some one!! Well mom is calling for the laptop back!! So Adios!!!! Hasta luego!!! We will write back tomorow!! -Garrett :)

Until tomorrow....enjoy the photos!