Operacion Sonrisa (Operation Smile)

 

Jhoselin Rodriquez, just turned thirteen last week.  She lives outside of Bella Vista the small farming community where we go to church.  She lives  on the other side of the river, which nine months out of the year is dry and a huge gravel pit.  Jhoselin (Joslyn) has been raised by her grandparents. Her grandmother speaks no Spanish, just Quechua .  Her grandfather speaks limited Spanish.  Her father died when she was young and her mother lives about 12 hours away in Chile, where she runs a small kiosko.



Blankets are used for doors

The Rodriquez house is very humble

We met Jhoselin in Sunday school, when we were teaching the youth one week.  We noticed she had her head down and her hand over her mouth.  When Lorna gave everyone cookies at the end of the class, she noticed that Jhoselin had problems with her mouth.  She was born with a cleft pallet and had two operations when she was a baby by "Operation Smile"  The second one was not successful and left her with her bottom lip protruding out about one inch,  she only has one or two teeth in the front, and her upper lip is sunken in.  Her father passed away and her mother one of nine children, left for Chile to support her daughter.  The Bella Vista community accepted Jhoselin and she had many friends there, and I think this was a factor in her mother leaving her daughter behind.


Lorna  Marina and daughter Jhoselin

 

Jack checked with Operation Smile and found out they didn't have another mission until next year.  Several weeks later, he was talking with the Branch President about it and Jack called the US office to see if there was any way to get her in somewhere sooner.  He found that they were coming back to Santa Cruz in October.  We started working on contacting her mother. The language barrier with the Grandmother made things more difficult, but we arranged to have the mother  come back and go with us to Santa Cruz. 

Jhoselin and Marina's fist airplane ride from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz

For those of you unfamiliar with "Operacion Sonrisa" Operation Smile,  its a wonderful charitable organization where doctors from the US and other developed countries perform operations on cleft pallets and lips, free of charge.  A bank here in Bolivia helps with food and some transportation.

Lorna right Jhoselin and Marina waiting for information on operation
90 degree heat with 90% humidity in an open air hospital

When we arrived at the hospital there were 125 patients ahead of us.  They processed over 160 that day,and many the next day.  Marina and Jhoselin stayed at a house  much like a Ronald McDonald house where they have some meals. Saturday we returned to the hospital where they were going to announce the selection process.  Another hot humid day. Many sad cases. Some Cholitas had traveled for days with their children. and some of the moms didn't look like they were even 14 years old. About 12:30 they announced the schedule.  Jhoselin passed all the tests and was selected for Wednesday.  You would have thought she won the lottery the way Lorna was yelling and clapping. They started on the operations on Monday and since Jhoselin's surgery  was  four days away ,we returned to Cochabamba Sunday morning. The surgeons operated Monday through Friday, I don't know the exact number but 15 to 20 people per day were operated on. Jhoselin was in surgery for about 3 hours on Wednesday. She came out of it fine and is doing well today. Her mom sounded so relieved when we spoke with her today. Jhoselin and her mother will be in Santa Cruz for another week. Operation Smile is a great organization and we will be cheerleaders for their cause in the future.



Lorna Downtown Santa Cruz

Government building in Santa Cruz

Main Plaza in Santa Cruz

We stayed in a great hotel

Bambino's in Bolivia?