Goodbye to some new found friends!

Sr. Cecilia, with the Community of Hope and the sisters of St. Columban... Her mission brought the children from Ozamiz City ( and a parent or guardian ) on a 3 hour van ride to stay 2 weeks in Dipolog for the speech therapy!! So special in her good deeds and care of God's children with disabilities!

Jashen and Marie Grace... Our interpreter, travel guides, Rotaractors, and Red Cross volunteers... Not to mention college students!! Amazing!!

The "speech team"... One of our mottos= 

LOST IN TRANSLATION! What an amazing and fun group!! 

Elizabeth "Betsy" Straka, MS,CCC-SLP

(Colorado Springs, Colorado)

Kate Schwab, B.A. graduate Student, University of Northern Colorado)

Theresa Snelling, MA,CCC-SLP

(Lakewood, CO)

Ellie McKinnon (honorary speech therapist!) marketing/ICSF-Boise,ID

Anesthesiologist, Dr. Mario John Judith; Nursing Team: Christine, Marilyn, Bon, and Earl! Did surgeries 6 days a week till... 11pm, midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am!!!

MORE TO COME!!!!!

Afternoon at beach with children!

The children performed songs,read  poems and letters, and passed out thank you cards to all of us this afternoon! The children from the city of Ozamiz have the sea out their gate, so all the children from both  Negros  and Dipolog region... Who have been in speech therapy for 2 weeks...got together for play, a little therapy... And swimming! What joy!!

Some before and afters...smiles changed...

BEFORE CLEFT PALATE REPAIR (left) and AFTER SURGICAL REPAIR (right) Although the cleft appears small in the picture on the right- the location of the cleft directly involves the muscles needed for speech; without the repair voice is hypernasal with some sounds impossible to make! The mother of the patient was counseled to return next year for speech therapy!

   

After ONE SIDED (Unilateral) Cleft Lip Repair!

(BELOW)
Beautiful 11 year old with two-sided (bilateral) cleft lip! Although still much swelling after 1 week...amazing outcome for this sweet shy girl!  We caught her smiling when we played a card game with her before surgery, but we hope to see her next year (when she feels better!) with a big, beautiful, well-healed smile! She still needs to have her cleft palate repaired!

 
 
 
 
 
 

(ABOVE)

Kent "AFTER"  (to the left) what a life changing surgical repair for this young boy...He waited  12 years for a mission to do his surgery! We can't wait to see him next year!  His mother was very happy to be there and finally have him receive surgery! 

Some team pictures with Rotary!

Sorry posting delays! It has been a busy week 2! We have been "well fed" with lunches, dinners, and snacks (deserts!) Attached are a few pictures of Dr.Mahjongs BDay party, lunches out with Rotary (prior to beach time on Sunday!)and rotary meeting/dinner!

Off to therapy... 25 patients and counting!!

Going to be another busy day! Children are amazing as are their parents! They LOVE speech therapy and practice EVERY DAY!!! More on that soon! 

Here's a picture of breakfast! Not like home... So delicious and so much to choose from! I eat it all...!

Wednesday... Day 3 of speech therapy!

Long days... But we are well taken care of wherever we go!! The Rotarians and Rotaract (young adults group) have provided food, rooms and language  interpretation for our first 5 days! The parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles work with our little speech students every day... Actually at least twice a day! Progress has already been seen with the children's speech! We have now had a chance to see the children on the ward to distribute books, toys, games and pencils/notebooks to help entertain them during their stay! Pictures below are from our visits to the ward. There are 2 teenagers waiting to have their lip repair surgery... They are some if the most severe cases I have seen. The boy and girl both look so scared! But with a little game of Memory we were able to distract them for a short while! I will post before pictures when I have "after" pictures to go with them! Otherwise it's overwhelming!

Many of the children staying together from the island of Negros (north of Mindanoa) woke with fevers and coughs today! We're trying hard to stay healthy! Lots of work for us to do!  

More tomorrow...as always, thanks for your prayers and support!!

From Dipolog City, Mindanoa, PH!

A few pictures!

We'll try and write more stories by the weekend! Crazy busy:-) 

24 children for speech!! 

Thanks for everyone's support and prayers!!