After a good night rest, we start day 2 bright and early as we still have quite a busy workload for day two. Breakfast at Miss Peggy consists of scrambled eggs and local tropical fruits. If we can finish all the cases for all the patients that show up today at the clinic, it would make us very happy.
The waiting room is full of people waiting for us as we arrive.
We arrive at Del Bajio International Airport at 9:30 PM. We breeze through custom without any issue. We meet Miss Dora from the Celaya Rotary club who has a big sign “KONDROT” with her. She can not believe we get through custom so fast. Last year, the doctor was held up at custom for three and a half hours with questions about permits to bring in all the supplies. I was prepared and printed out multiple copies of our invitation letters and permits and made sure we have everything in order in case we get help up.
Here we are getting ready for Celaya Mexico.
The supplies from SEE arrive at our clinic. Four huge boxes first and I manage to transfer them all into 3 big suitcases. It is quite a challenge but I use all the tricks known from all the years of traveling to stuff them all neatly into the expandable bags while keeping a keen eye out for airlines’ the weight limit of 50 pounds per bag.
We received a pallet of essential vitamins and nutrients to be distributed on our next mission. Nutritional deficiency is one of the leading cause of blindness. Thank you, Douglas Lab!
Thank you, Douglas Labs!
The Thank You messages for Dr. Kondrot are pouring in. Here are a few clips.
Continue reading “A big Thank You from the patients in Liberia”
Today is our last day here in Liberia. I must admit I am walking around the waiting area and it seems like there are more people on the last day than on the first day! How could this be? We worked very hard every day from early morning to late night and people are still waiting in long line. Some has been waiting for days.
Words travel fast and as people hear that we are here to do eye surgery, they are coming from far away to get the care.
Take a look at the waiting area this morning and tell me if you agree with me.
Sitting in the lobby, I hear from Joe Sackor, our coordinator for this mission talk about the praise from the patients sitting outside the operating room. They sit there waiting before and after surgery. We are too busy to visit with them so we don’t get to hear these things first hand ourselves. We barely have just a few minutes in between operation to look at people eyes to give the go-ahead to get them scrub up for surgery. We don’t even have time for lunch let alone time to chit chat with anybody.
What a day! We did seven surgeries today including repairing a traumatized iris prolapsed for a young four years old boy. We did surgery until late, even after the big generator has stopped, and the big light is out. We use the iPhone flashlight often.
By the grace of God, the team arrives safely at Redemption Hospital through the horrendous morning traffic and the crazy maneuvers of large sixteen wheelers tow truck near the entrance to the Monrovia Freeport on Somalia road. When a truck decides to do a U-turn on Somalia road, traffic on both ways comes to a standstill waiting for the large truck to finish its moves. At the midpoint of the U-turn, the truck would just cut off traffic completely going both ways and slowly makes it back and forth maneuvers until it is lined up to go in the driver desired direction. All the while, we have cars and tut-tuts and other vehicles mixed in with pedestrians peddling the things they are selling, either carrying them on their heads or pushing their coconuts and drinking water in plastic bags in wheel barrels. It is a dizzying scene and I wonder how many accidents happen a day. But amazingly, we actually have not witnessed one accident since we arrived and we have not even seen an ambulance here.
As we enter the hospital, we are reminded of the tough time in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak:
Tell me a story that can top doing surgery when the generator shut off and we have to finish the operation under the light of an iPhone flashlight? Yes, Apple to the rescue in the Operating Room. Then driving against traffic in the morning at a crazy speed and driving back to the hotel in the back of a pickup truck in the dust of Monrovia Broad street!
The day started at a hectic pace. But team spirit is high!
Here we are all smiling for Day Two of the mission.
