"Fishikta" means "Smile" in Tigrena

The past week has been a VERY busy week for me; probably one of the busiest I’ve had in country yet. That’s because this past week I had the amazing opportunity to volunteer for one of the coolest NGO’s out there: Operation Smile.

For those who don’t know what Operation Smile does, they go all around the world fixing cleft lips and cleft palates. Cleft lips and palates are deformities of the lip and palate, and can range anywhere from a very slightly misshapen lip to a person missing their palate altogether. While not usually life threatening (except in the case of missing palates), they often create severe speech problems and can even make it difficult for these people to be accepted by their community. The problems can usually be fixed by surgery, and so Operation Smile is currently working in dozens of countries to help people with these problems. These “missions” last on average about 10 days, and during that time a team of surgeons, pediatricians, nurses, dentists, volunteers, and locals work as hard as they can to help as many people as possible. In some countries, the operation smile missions have become sustainable and are run completely by local doctors and volunteers. More often than not, however, people from all over the world volunteer not only their time but also their money to be a part of this. Yes, even the surgeons actually PAY to help others!

So how did I fit into this amazing organization? My job as a Peace Corps volunteer on this mission was simple: help out wherever was needed. And boy did we work. We helped with paperwork, running errands, moving stuff, and even translation! The first two days were screening days, where we screened over 200 patients about their medical history and speech abilities in order to determine if they were a candidate for surgery. Patients that were malnourished or sick were turned away the same day, because putting them under anesthesia would be too dangerous and might result in their death. They were asked to return in October for the next mission, giving them another chance to be helped. Unfortunately, there were still only a limited number of surgery slots available and too many potential candidates. The third day was all about telling those people who couldn’t be helped to come back in October. One case in particular was tough, when a young child who was missing his palate entirely had bad results from his blood tests and was determined too risky to operate. When we told the dad that his child was too sick to be helped at that time, he broke down in front of us in one of the most heart-wrenching things I’ve seen. Even though we encouraged him to come back in October, he wasn’t sure he could afford to come all the way back across the country (as he was from the south). Operation Smile helped him out as much as they could and sent him on his way, but it was a rough day for all involved.

Nevertheless, surgeries began on the fourth day and continued for five or six days after that, and what an amazing time that was. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, we often have to spend a lot of time putting projects together. They can take months or even years of work before completion, and even then projects can still fail or may take several years after the volunteer has left to fully come into fruition. This can be tough, because we’re constantly frustrated by how little results we see. Operation Smile was amazing in that we saw how much it helped people right away. So many kids were being helped every day, and it was such a wonderful thing to see the reactions to their new faces. I was even allowed to go into the operating room and watch the operations underway! The recovery after surgeries was painful and would take a while, but overall there was a great feeling of happiness and accomplishment for all involved.

Overall, the week was exactly the boost I needed. Times can get tough here, and sometimes in our most frustrated moments we tend to lose sight of the fact that we’re here to help people. Although I was extremely exhausted after my week in Mekele (we joked that we went from 30 minute days to 12 hour days overnight), I’m so, so, so grateful to Operation Smile for the opportunity to see the difference they made in people’s lives. This is a great organization, and if you ever get the chance you should check them out at www.operationsmile.org today. This experience will literally change your life forever.