Posts from Past Missions

Day 8: Ch’uq-ib: Keeping Warm

In the last few days, you may have noticed our patients in bed or covered up in beautiful quilt, such as the ones below. These quilts were made for and donated by Wrap-A-Smile (a Rotary based organization led by Ann Demeranville, a

Day 7: Part 2- Meet our sponsors: The Rotary Club of San Jose

According to sjrotary.org, The Rotary Club of San Jose, located in San Jose, California, was founded on March 11, 1914. There are currently 420 members and the club is the 8th largest in the world. The Rotary Club of San

Day 7: K’ak’ q’ij- New Day

It’s a new day. Another chance to discover And rediscover And make changes And enjoy life. A chance to reach out. A chance to hold on To the things that are dear. It’s a new day. Another opportunity. A chance to live And

Day 6: Meet Alejandro

Good morning! Its another beautiful day in Antigua, Guatemala. Today I would like you to meet Alejandro! We met Alejandro and his mom Marcella on our first clinic day. They drove two hours from Guatemala City to meet our team

Day 5-part 2: Loq’oq’ej:To love

In K’iche’ the word to love is loq’oq’ej and this is what we are all feeling on this beautiful day. Love for our host country and its beautiful people and loq’oq’ej and k’amowaj (to give thanks), to our strong, incredible, trusting

Day 11- Farewells

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As we finished with the last patients and were packing up boxes, we were surprised when a luncheon was set up for us.  We were under the impression that this was cancelled due to COVID.  Unfortunately, not all of our

Day 11- The after effects

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This is our last day here (Thursday, August 4).  There will be no surgeries today.  Patients that were staying locally were asked to come back today for a final check of their surgical sites.  For some, their surgery was a

Day 10- Sound of silence

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What a different feel this morning has compared to all the others since we have been here.  We only have three surgery patients today.  This means there was no crowd waiting for us when we arrived.  No one is sitting

Day 9- Brighter Days

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What a refreshing morning this is!  The hard rain we had last night is barely a drizzle making everything clean and fresh.  I didn’t even mind being up for my 5am COVID test, (my family won’t believe that). This should

Day 8- Helping adults too

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When I first learned of Rotaplast, my thoughts were of all the children that needed their services to repair cleft lips and palates.  I knew there were some adults but was not prepared for the number of adults that have

Day 7- Working day off

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This is Sunday and our only day off during this mission.  However, the surgeons still had rounds to make at the hospital to check on patients that were admitted for the night.  There were four of them. Samuel- Photos: Dr.

Day 6- Giving people a voice

It amazes me how we have had rain every night we are here but it has cleared up by breakfast.  It seems mother nature is watering all these beautiful plants while we sleep.  Some of us got up extra early

Day 5- Shedding happy tears

We arrived later than normal to the hospital due to COVID testing of our team (at 7:30am).  We were surprised, and a bit guilty, when we entered to a round of applause from the patients scheduled for surgery who were

Day 4- Making waiting fun

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Even though we arrived at the hospital at 6:30am, we have one patient here already waiting for his surgery.  After setting up, I accompanied the doctors on their rounds this morning checking on the five patients that were admitted after

Day 3- Changing lives

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Early mornings are starting to feel normal now.  When we showed up at the hospital at 6:30am, we already have a line forming outside of parents and children I recognize from clinic days.  They were excited and hopeful for their

Day 2- Double duty: clinic & surgeries

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The day started with another early breakfast and on the bus to the hospital at 6:15am.  Upon arrival, everyone got right to work setting up our different areas.  Notice the picture of Roger Schulte proudly displayed on the medical records

Day 1- Clinic Day, Decisions to be made

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We began the morning bright and early with breakfast at 5:30am with a quick meeting to follow.  Then we boarded a bus around 6:30am and took a 15-minute ride to Hospital General de Medellin.  After checking in with security, we

Travel day for some, work for others- Sunday

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This is a dedicated group of volunteers with service hearts.  They jumped through hoops and dealt with troublesome websites getting all the paperwork done for their Visas and immigration but never gave up.  Our team has come from Northern California,

The Roger Schulte “100 Sonrisas” Rotaplast 2022 Mission to Colombia

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This Rotaplast mission is dedicated to the great humanitarian, Roger Schulte who passed away on Monday, July 18 after his courageous battle with ALS ended.  This member of the Rotary Club of Upland, California had a passion for the mission

Day 6 – Going Home

After breakfast, several team members met with Dr. Elizondo to discuss the mission and future opportunities for Rotaplast to work with them.  He expressed thanks to the Rotaplast team for coming and assisting them on the mission.  In total, 36