On the weekend of March 25th, the Rotaract Club of MiraCosta College
was invited to participate at the Smiles of Tecate event in Mexico.
We arrived at the hospital on Friday morning and received a crash
course in sterilizing instruments necessary for the surgeries.
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Although our members did not participate in the surgeries, they spent
a lot of time with the families of the patients. New member Elliot Cole
had a particularly tear-jerking experience:
“After one of the infants got out of the surgery, he was still in an
anesthetic coma. We woke him up and he started crying. The surgeries
are very painful afterward. Christopher (age 1) had just received a
palate reconstruction. I was given the opportunity to carry Christopher
to his mother. The look his mother gave me, a mixture of relief and
thanks, brought tears to my eyes. I had to go into the bathroom and
calm myself down.”
Personal thanks to our sponsoring Rotary clubs for helping fund our
trip and to Smiles International for providing us with this amazing
opportunity. We are very excited to go back in July for the second
round of surgeries!