Operation Smile

For those of you who don't already know, and I realize that I have been talking about this a lot, I have had the AMAZING opportunity to work with Operation Smile, an American NGO that is in Thiès, Senegal this week performing free surgeries, as an interpreter from Wolof to English. To give you a quick rundown on what they do, here are some facts from their website, www.operationsmile.org:

Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is a worldwide children’s medical charity. In 1982, Operation Smile was founded by Dr. William P. Magee Jr., a plastic surgeon, and his wife, Kathleen S. Magee, a nurse and clinical social worker.

Since 1982, more than 120,000 children and young adults with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities have been treated by thousands of volunteers worldwide and thousands of medical professionals have been trained globally.

Operation Smile was launched after its first mission to the Philippines in 1982. Operation Smile currently has a presence in 51 countries.

This week was their first trip to Senegal, and if all goes well, they will be coming back within the year to provide more surgeries. This week, a total of around 150 Senegalese patients, mostly children, with facial deformities had the opportunity to receive free, life-changing surgeries and I am so blessed to have been able to participate in it all. As the interpreter, I got to tell the patients about their surgery, how to prepare for it and explain post-operative care to them after surgery. I spent most of my time in post-operative with the nurses following them around and asking patients how they were doing and feeling. It felts really good to be that link between them and their medical care. On the opposite side, it was heartbreaking to have to tell people that we could not perform the surgery for whatever reason and that there was nothing we could ndo for them. Between the highs and the lows, it was an emotional week.

I am a little jealous of the volunteers with Operation Smile (every one of which I completely and utterly respect and admire) who get instant gratification. Within a week they get to see the results of their work. The development work that I am doing is a little different in that we "plant the seeds" of development and hope that our projects will be sustainable, but often it takes years for the results to come about. I believe that both types of development work are necessary, charity and sustainable development work, in order to encourage developping countries, but I suppose Im just a little jealous that I can't experience what these volunteers have.

Oh well, c'est la vie. Pastures always greener and whatnot. Operation Smile is having a farewell lunch in town that they have invited the Peace Corps Volunteers to attend and so I am off to a free lunch, and to say to goodbye to some amazing people who have become good friends in only a week.