Tour of Monrovia and Orphanage Visit

Saturday afternoon the group split into two groups, one going on a tour of Monrovia taking in the urban grit of Liberia's capital city. The other visited teh Frances Gaskin Orphanage. We had the opportunity to distribute soccer balls which were donated by CSI Partner Michael Silvio;puzzles, dolls, signed soccer balls and books donated by Crocus Hill School, a preschool in St Paul; de- worming pills and dumdum suckers.

Dr. Dave Tetzlaff coordinated the donation of 300 pairs of shoes donated by Soles4Souls.
Debra Frasier (author of the terrific children's book,"On the Day You Were Born) donated crowns and books. There was even a tent celebrating Children's Reading from the Minnesota State Fair.
Off to bed to get ready for an early morning of screening at the hospital! Everyone is very excited as word is we have a very full day of very needy patients.

Rest and Recovery Day for the Team

 Dr. Dave Tetzlaff, Ambassador Deborah Malac, Katie Stewart, Victoria & Dr. Dave Vandersteen.

Today was a "recovery day" but in reality the team is doing so well nobody had to take a nap.
One group started bright and early visiting Monkey Island which now is home to many gorilla-sized primates which were used for HIV testing by the US in its quest for a vaccine.
 Everyone gathered at noon for a very special VIP presentation by the US Ambassador
 to Liberia, Deborah Malac. She greeeted us with a warm welcome filled with thanks for our efforts.

Our Liberian team has arrived

The team arrived at Monrovia's Robertson Field in  two shifts last night, all in great shape. Firestone officials were at the airport to meet us, whisk us through customs (only one suitcase is AWOL supposedly arriving sometime Saturday)
The Firestone Guest House staff prepared a wonderful welcome dinner with many senior Bridgestone and Firestone Liberia staff as well as senior hospital executives.
Thanks to a donation by CSI Partner Michael Silvio of 50 soccer balls we got out the hand pumps and blew up 20 to distribute on Saturday
Three other team members are due late Saturday. It is very, very warm and the sky looks heavy with impending rain which we are secretly hoping for. There is something magical about falling asleep to the sound of rain pelting the metal roofs.

New Smiles!

Sunday, October 6

We had a splendid surgical day one! We performed 4 primary cleft lip repairs, 7 palate repairs, 4 bone grafts, along with 4 lip revisions and surgeries to improve speech.

This was the full schedule as planned, even though Dr. Fritz’s arrival was delayed until almost noon.

His trip took him through Cleveland, Chicago, Tulsa, Dallas and Phoenix. Needless to say, he needed to hit the ground running! Kudos to Dr. Fritz!

Perhaps some of our younger patients would be inclined to disagree, but our team and their parents would say that all went well. After the inevitable crying had subsided, there were many, many smiles along with tears of joy. Some of our little, initially sad, customers are starting to try out their new

smiles this morning. Thanks to everyone's efforts, they will have much more to smile about in the years to come!

On an unrelated note: Hairball Update - - Many of our group went to their concert Saturday night and had an absolute blast! They tried hard to be good and leave early so they could get to bed on time, but when Hairball played Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer" the night was extended just a bit. Five star

reviews from all, so those of you reading from in the Twin Cities, New Year's Eve at the Medina Ballroom promises to be a night to remember!

MN Band "Hairball" Supports CSI in Hermosillo

Our patients and team were thrilled to meet the band Hairball at the hospital.

Dollies Making A Difference in MX

Our team was busy in surgery again today. Here are some pictures of some of our patients and also our team. The dollies were donated by a wonderful group of women in California called Dollies Making a Difference. The team departs Tuesday morning around 11a. Another successful mission! We are looking forward to our 10th mission next year. A special thanks to St Andrew's Childrens' Clinic and the staff and volunteers at CIMA Hospital for making the mission such a success.

Hermosillo Screening Day

We had a great day today--we had 96 kids we were prepared to screen, 87 showed up and got screened, and we are planning to do surgery on 38 of them, 19 tomorrow and 19 Monday.
It was  chaos at first but within the hour we had it down to a system and the rest of the day flowed as smoothly as seeing 87 patients in one day can go. Unfortunately we are not all here yet...we are waiting for Laura Glass, our second floor nurse to arrive this evening, and Mike Fritz, one of our surgeons, is still in Dallas, whence it seems the fastest way to get to Hermosillo is to fly to Mexico City and back. Or was it Berlin? We may have to pare back the schedule but will do our best to fit in as many cases as we can, safely.

And we would like to give a shout out to Hairball! When we checked in at the airport in Minneapolis , the agent asked if we were with that rock band. Um, no. But they were going to Hermosillo, too. She thought they maybe were Kiss; we found that unlikely. Someone said they were called Airborne. I sat next to them on the plane, where they listened to music, drank soft drinks, and looked out the window the whole way to Phoenix--it was crazy! They are staying at the same hotel as us, so we got to talking this morning. They are a heavy metal cover band/pyrotechnic spectacle from Minneapolis, and they are playing a gig in Hermosillo tonight. We told them about the work we are doing here and invited them to stop by the hospital if they had time, and they came this afternoon after they finished their sound check! The kids were thrilled, as were the hospital staff--many photos and smiles all around!! It was a great touch to a great day--it was really nice of them to take the time to stop by!  I never thought I would say thank you and Hairball in the same sentence, but thank you, Hairball. :)