Babies, children and a few adults arrived to be examined at the first clinic check-in. Besides cleft lips and cleft palates, we will be treating burns for a 6-month old boy who had fallen into the family cooking fire, a common occurrence countries with open cooking areas within the living quarters.
Most of the patients speak Ewe, and some speak Gen. Through a chance meeting at the cyber-cafe in Afagnan, we were most fortunate to conscript Brandon Komlan H. Soncy-Koakly for our translation team. Brandon is fluent in English, French and Watchi, and willingly assists our entire team where needed…. Priceless!
After patient registration and screening, a surgery schedule was set. Many hours were spent by the medical team getting the operating rooms ready for tomorrow morning.
Every mission has challenges. It was great to see all the teams working together so well.