Day 6

Two of today’s surgeries are Salumita Ramirez, sponsored by Rene Accornero, and Marta Saquim Law sponsored by Jim LeBlanc.

Sulamita’s parents are 27 and 26, they have 6 children and had to travel 7 hours by bus to get to the hospital. Neither has any education; they can’t read or write. Dad can spell his own name. He works in the fields and earns $4 to $5 dollars a day, but not every day. Sulamita had lip surgery last year and is here again for palate surgery. Her mother notes that when Sulamita eats now food will come out of her nose. She can only say a few words and “grunts” a lot which causes her to become frustrated. Dad starts to tell us how hard he has worked to try to save money for Sulamita’s care, but he has been unable to save anything. He starts to cry, and wants Rotary to know how grateful he is. Otherwise his daughter would go through life like she is now. We have “assigned” Sulamita’s case to the contribution of Rene; if you could be here they wanted to embrace you in thanks.

Marta, age 17 months, is having a difficult surgery involving both the lip and palate by Dr. De Shazo. This case is unusual in that the family has only one child, the mother graduated from high school, and the father has a full time job. Despite this they could never have afforded Marta’s medical care. Marta has the same problem as Sulamita…when she eats food it comes out of her nose. When we explained that a Jim LeBlanc had contributed to the expenses the mother said "thank you because you have changed our daughter’s life."

Day 5 - Antigua

Today we visited one of the more beautiful colonial cities in the world. It has cobblestone streets, colorful colonial buildings, and flowers everywhere. The weather is so good here that roses bloom all year…the nickname is City of Perpetual Roses.

The covered markets are enormous, absolutely packed with hundreds of vendors with every variety of fruit, vegetable, and cloth. Brilliant color is the theme of Antigua. If you are a photographer this is your city.

Since this is Sunday, the churches are filled to capacity, the streets alive with families, and there is laughter and energy everywhere. We wish we had much more time here. Phil is lost, and we can’t find him!

The Guatemala club members met us in Antigua and welcomed us with great enthusiasm and friendship. We were invited to a Rotarian’s home, a former ambassador to Spain and Japan in town for lunch. This house should be in Architectural Digest. The meal ends with not one, but three desserts.

We toured a 1000 acre coffee plantation followed by coffee at one of the most beautiful hotels we have ever seen, located on the property. Finally, we visited a jade shop to take care of our spouses. Guilt is a great motivator!

This is a city that is definitely worth seeing for more than one day.

Day 4 - Emotional Day

Today was one in which most of us were in tears at one time or another. It is very difficult to hear the stories of these impoverished people, look into the face of their children, and not to be deeply touched. It is one thing to intellectually be aware of our many advantages, and another to experience it face to face.

One unexpected benefit of this trip is the opportunity to watch, at very close range, the surgeries in progress. We continually shake our heads in wonderment. These doctors are artists. Ron Gemberling should be canonized. We are a great team and Ron is our quarterback. He would be the first to acknowledge that this work cannot be done alone and his support staff is vital.

Look at the pictures below…they include scenes in surgery and pictures of a father, in the recovery room, looking at his son for the first time without a cleft lip. We will not forget this experience. His face tells us all we need to know about why we do this.

We are fortunate to have great translators, two who are students home for the summer from Arizona State, Manuel & Daniel. A mother of a 6 month old became faint in the recovery room while holding her child who had just come from the OR with a cleft palate repair. Manuel was holding the baby and started to cry. Dad came in and also began to cry with happiness. The nurses cried next.