We are going to focus on our team today. We are a group of 30 from 3 countries: the USA, Canada, and Uruguay. In addition, we have numerous Venezuelan Rotary volunteers and a large group of volunteers from the commercial sponsors within the country. Our group of thirty is broken into two groups of volunteers: medical (20 persons) and non medical (10 persons). The non medical volunteers are mostly Rotarians or Rotaplast staff and volunteers. All of the non medical people have a designated duty that ranges from our team leader and his assistant, the sterilizer, recovery room assistants, patient transport, our quartermaster (who takes care of all of our needs), medical records, interpreter, and the photo-journalist. All of these folks volunteer their time and pay their own airfare. The medical portion of our team consist of the surgeons, operating room nurses, recovery room nurses, pediatricians, dentist, anesthesiologist, and a head nurse. These folks volunteer their time and expertise and in most cases their travel expenses are covered by the Rotaplast organization. Some of these volunteers are also Rotarians.
The in-country volunteers are invaluable to the operation. They arrange transportation in the country, our bus to get to and from the hospital, the hotel arrangements, all sorts of food, interpretation for the various team members where needed, including in the operating rooms.
I continue to be impressed by the dedication of this group. Good shares of them leave the hotel at 7 AM and return sometimes as late as 9 PM and do it all over again the next day. One of the doctors is always on call in case of any emergency at the hospital. It is also impressive to see how well the non medical volunteers work with the professionals. Everyone has learned their job and place, and this group is working like a well oiled machine.