A special note from Dr. David Rosenberg:
Dr. David Rosenberg's grand daughters, Jordana and Abigall Rosenberg attend the Ellison School in Vineland, NJ. Jordana's spanish class drew Get Well cards and inscribed them in spanish wishing the Rotaplast patients a speedy Recovery. The patients faces broke into wide smiles, when possible, after receiving the cards.
The final entry, we are on our way home.
If you have been following the this blog and the international news, you know that we have had our challenges, with the volcano erupting and closing the airport, the first tropical storm of the year dropping more rain in 4 days than the country could possible handle, resulting in mud slides that closed roads and created major sink holes in the capitol, all keeping this mission here in Guatemala City for an extended time. This could have caused a disaster for us, if not for the help and generosity of these wonderful people of the Guatemala City Rotary; Carlos, Elisa, Tommy and Joanna and many others who treated us all like their family, made sure we were housed and fed while we waited out the natural disasters that kept us here an additional 5 days. I believe I speak for all of us on this mission when I say the people of Guatemala City Rotary have set a new standard for Rotary.
Thank you from all of us.
On Tuesday, June 2 at 2pm all of us but Evelyn and Brian (they stayed behind to accompany all the medical instruments back to San Francisco on Saturday) boarded a bus to El Salvador (7 hour bus trip through the Guatemala/El Salvador border and on to San Salvador, and on Wednesday we all departed for home. Some went to Houston, Philadelphia, and Los Angles then on to their final destinations.
Some memorable pictures from our trip home.
The Saratoga Rotary mission team
Ron Gemberling, Bob Araldi, Bruce Hodgin, Scott Wheelwright, David Mimeles, Bella Mahoney,
Julie Herndon, Rick Waltonsmith.
Welcome home at the San Francisco Airport. Dave and Bob arrived at San Jose Airport.
Debby Rice and Connie Hodgin, the welcome home reception team at San Francisco Airport.
A closing note from this photojournalist: Thank you to everyone on this mission for giving me one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. As many of the children's parents told us, "God Bless you all for all you do". I couldn't agree more!