Posts from Past Missions

DAY FOUR – Let The Surgeries Begin

Cebu City, Philippines

A Bundle Of Nerves Many of these families slept here last night in the humid, stifling heat sharing a cot with their child. This morning, the room is eerily silent as each parent waits for their child’s name to be

DAY THREE – More Patients To Meet

Cebu City, Philippines

Meet The Team All of the Medical and Non-Medical volunteers pose for a photo outside of Adventist Hospital, which was established in 1956 as H. W. Miller Memorial Sanitarium and Hospital. It’s All In A Day’s Work Anesthesiologist Srikanthan Kandasamy,

DAY TWO – Meeting The Families & Patients

Cebu City, Philippines

What A Difference A Day Makes On Monday, all the chairs were set up in the hospital’s sports center where physical therapy patients usually exercise. For the Rotaplast mission, the gym is converted to the pre & post-op ward. There

DAY ONE – Getting Here

Cebu City, Philippines

“It’s So Good To See You!” After arriving at the International terminal in San Francicso, 22 mission members, including medical professionals and non-medical Rotarian volunteers, greeted friends they’ve known for a long time and met friends-in-the-making. OR Nurses Evelyn Snyder

Day 8: Ch’uq-ib: Keeping Warm

Antigua, Guatemala

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

Antigua, Guatemala

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

Antigua, Guatemala

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 5 part 1: Bendiciones-Blessings

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Good morning and welcome back. Today we started day 3 of surgeries. By 7am, all areas of the hospital were busy either preparing our patients for surgery or helping them to recover from their operations yesterday.   I would like

Day 4-part 2: Memorable moments

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  Great job today Team Rotaplast!

Day 4-part 1: Tiburón bebe: Baby shark

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Good afternoon, we started our day in the post-op ward hanging out with our patients who had surgery yesterday. Our Recreation therapist, Cyndie George, entertained the children with baby shark, otherwise known as tiburón bebe, coloring sheets. These coloring sheets

Day 3- K’extajik:Transformed

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When we arrived this morning, I heard one of the parents use the word k’extajik. I asked one of the nurses what this meant and she explained to me that the mother speaks K’iche, the Mayan language of Guatemala, which

Day 2-Life around the hospital

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Day 2- Welcome Back Home

Antigua, Guatemala

In the words of our host, Mr. Carlos Ramirez Portilla, “Welcome Back Home.” Thanks to the help of our local Rotary club host, Rotary Club Guatemala de la Asunción, the hospital was surrounded by our beautiful patients this morning, who greeted

Day 1- I haven’t seen you since….

Antigua, Guatemala

Welcome to our blog. My name is Renee Paquier and I am your mission historian. This mission is located in Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua Guatemala or “Old Guatemala” is located in southern Guatemala. It was founded in the early 16th century

Day 11(Part 2) – Farewells

Medellin, Colombia

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

Medellin, Colombia

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

Medellin, Colombia

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

Medellin, Colombia

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