U-Lead Day 2: Missions, Moduals, and panaMania

Day 2 went amazingly well. Today's presentations centered around the mission experience. The day opened up with presentations from two amazing surgeons that volunteer for Operation Smile Panama, Dr. Alberto Moreno and Dr. Carlos De Leon. Both speakers took time out of their busy schedules to talk about their personal experiences and the structure of missions, how patients are chosen, and what kind of volunteers work for Operation Smile. Like all our guest speakers they spoke only en español; we planned the "spanglish" conference to bridge the language barrier between the American Balboa High School and the bilingual Panamerican School which represent the majority of participants at our conference. Next we all explained different ways of getting your story known, including social netowrking sites, OS Central, blogs, reaching out contacts, and comparing and contrasting different ways to do presentations. The Panamanian leaders that have been so helpful, Maria, Anna, and Roberto, really showed their true colors once again by giving an amazing presentation about their mission experiences in Panama. After a great lunch of Panamanian pizza, we taught presentations about two health modules, dental hygiene and nutrition, from Mission Training Workshop. The students then got into groups of two or three to make and then present their knowledge about the health modules in preparation for our service project tomorrow. Since our conference is held in a children's hospital, they are going to present what they have learned to los niños in the hospital.

So these students have been learning a lot about Operation Smile, leadership, service, education, awareness, and the mission experience, but what are they going to do about it? We worked in small groups to write and discuss personal goals about what students can do to improve their involvement with Operation Smile, to improve their roles as leaders, and to inspire their peers to help others. We then brought everyone together to brainstorm new ways to raise money, spread awareness, and connect and grow student clubs in Panama. To cap off the day we played a heated, fun game of Jeopardy to review what they had learned over the past two days. Jenn's "Purple Team" pulled ahead to take first place. Most of the students went home as parents started to come in to attend a question and answer session lead by Carlos Veron about the International Student Cultural Exchange (ISCE) in Beijing, China. James did his part to provide a personal account of what a significant impact these international conferences have had on his life in the past four years.

We then went out to dinner with some of the student leaders and  Gabi the sponsor from the Panamerican School at a place called Beruit. We feasted on some amazing Lebanese food (Hey, we know we're in Panama, but we're also international adventurers!) and shared some good laughs.

Panama continues to be a beautiful, welcoming country that makes us love the people more and more every day. Each day we have had fun and done what we have can to inspire the passionate leaders of the nation. We continue to be thankful for and humbled by this amazing opportunity. Day 3 looks like a lot of fun. Students will present their health modules around the hospital, play a game of Capture the Flag, and make decorations for a local screening mission on Saturday in the countryside. Our final party will surely be exciting. In usual Operation Smile fashion, we will wrap up the conference with a fun dance party, but this time it will be on a moving bus called a chiva. Now that is what we call panaMania!!