Everyone has arrived safely in the beautiful city of Guatemala with its wonderful hospitality. After a tour of the hospital and a check that all of our supplies made it, we had a brief team meeting and then a wonderful team dinner. Many on the team are veterans but at least 5 of us are newbies and very excited! After long flights the gang was up for some silliness right off the bat as you can see below with Michael and Shushma below, two of our Rotarian volunteers.
Checking in is a great time to meet old friends and make new ones!
These folks below are from Guatemala City and they are just a few of the crew that will help us with translation and get medical training at the same time. Wendy and Andy on the far right are District 7430 Rotarians here to help in the PACU and to help entertain the children before and after surgery, vital roles!
Check-in was a great time for everyone to get acquainted. Arun Rama, below is our lead anesthesiologist. Ekaterinina Tysmbal is a Resident in Anesthesia. She is the youngest member of our team and we have already nicknamed her “Doogie Howser” for the duration of the trip. She is a delight! 
Waiting for the bus to take us from the hospital back to the hotel. I just cannot get over how quickly I have just made so many new and wonderful friends from all over, and from so many different walks of like. That is the magic of Rotary and organizations like Rotaplast! We are so grateful to everyone at District 7430 who fully sponsored this mission. Tomorrow we will see over 200 children and help as many as we can over the next 2 weeks, thanks to generosity of and kindness of people just like you! 