After our fantastic days spent shopping for supplies, putting together the final aspects of the conference, promoting Operation Smile on the radio, and checking out the Panama Canal, we finally were ready for the conference. After all of our preparation, the weekly conference calls, and the constant emails, the conference finally began. We worked so hard to put this all together, and it was with a great deal of excitement and nerves that we began. We were nervous because we weren’t certain how great the language barrier would be. However, the students who came to the conference were so enthusiastic and fun to be around that, despite the difference in language, we didn’t struggle much. Those who were fully bilingual were always willing to help us out, and those who weren’t were so enthusiastic about Operation Smile that communication was much easier than it would have otherwise been.
While there were many highlights to the conference, including the hard lessons learned in the What is it Like to be a Patient Scavenger Hunt, our enthusiastic speakers, and the games, my favorite part of the conference was the service project that the students did on the morning of the last day. I think of this moment as proof that our conference was really effective and worth their time, and ours.
Typically, mission-training students get more time to prepare, spend more time with the information, and have more resources. Each of our breakout groups had great students who were so inventive in the way they presented the information, and all of the groups had bright, hands-on posters that invited kids and their parents to participate.
I remember going through mission training over a year and a half ago, stressing over how much I was supposed to remember, how to make it interesting, and how to make it interactive. Since the students were working with even less time, we were a bit nervous how it was going to go. However, they absolutely and completely surpassed all of our expectations and genuinely made a difference. Some of the students in my group were put in a waiting room in the far end of the hospital. The TV was bouncing back and forth between Spanish music and infomercials, and the few families in the waiting room looked exhausted and stressed. The students hovered together around the entrance, the natural reaction to being thrown into a new situation. It’s that first moment on the mission where suddenly, you’re there and there are people all around, and you’re not quite sure how to start. The students glanced at each other, and then the moment passed and each pair headed off to a different family. Their confidence in their presentations was incredible, and the families were all appreciative for their presentations. One family, of a mother with her young son and baby daughter were waiting for the boy’s blood to be drawn. Very shortly into their presentation, he was called back to get his blood drawn, and he returned in tears. Instead of shying away from the emotional boy, four students compassionately surrounded him, dental hygiene and nutrition posters in hand. In order to staunch his tears, one of the girls removed the pin holding her name tag to her shirt, got a slip of paper from the hospital desk, and created a homemade sticker, that said “superhero” for him to wear. Meanwhile, the other three girls encouraged him to participate in removing the germs from their poster of a dirty mouth. Though he was still watery-eyed, he began to remove germs, completely forgetting about his sore arm. These four girls were so successful, that not only did they manage to teach the family about basic dental hygiene but they also managed to deal with the situation at hand without a blink of an eye.
These presentations, which are done on medical missions, can be difficult, and just like the rest of the students at the conference the girls did an amazing job with it. After the service project, James, Megan, Jenn and I were all so proud of how well it went, and how well the students adapted to each situation.
The conference really was a success, and I’m so glad I had a chance to work with James, Megan, and Jenn for these past few months to put it all together. Though we are all from Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was the only one of the four of us that attended Bosque High School. I was so grateful for the chance to get to know all of them better. James has one of those personalities that is just so much fun to be around. He did an amazing job spearheading the planning for this conference, and it was largely thanks to his extra work communicating with Operation Smile Panama that made this conference work. Megan is one of the most genuine people I know. We’re the two newbies on the College Council, though if you watched Megan working you would never know it. She is such a hard worker and so creative. She has done some absolutely incredible things with her club, and I want my college club to follow in UNM’s footsteps, because Megan and her club do such great things. I’ve had the chance to work with Jenn in high school through Operation Smile, and it absolutely amazes me what this girl can do. Her drive is absolutely astonishing. She may be one of the busiest people I know, and despite being so busy, she still manages to do a great job on everything she tries. Finally, we were so lucky to have Carlos as our sponsor. I’m so glad that he now works for Operation Smile, because he is such a great addition to student programs. He was willing to do whatever it took to make sure the little things all came together, becoming our translator, tech guy, and he also kept track of the budget. He was also one of our most popular speakers for the conference, and such a fun person to be around.
I am so thankful for this opportunity and for the chance to meet and work the people, from Xenia, Catherine, at Operation Smile Panama, to Gabi, who is so hardworking and talented, to Roberto, Ana, and Maria, to Jenn, James, Megan, and Carlos, to finally the students themselves. It was all of these people who really made this experience the crazy, fun, educational, life-changing experience that it was.
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