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!!

U-Lead Day 1: The Team that Cleanses Together Stays Together

With a bit of trepidation and a lot of excitement, we began the conference. We started the morning a bit before seven in the morning, and enjoyed our breakfast before heading out to the hospital to prepare for the day. In natural Operation Smile fashion, it was an organized mess. We quickly put up signs and got everything ready for check in. It was exciting that we were finally getting to meet everyone after working for so long to create this conference. We had 56 students registered and to get everything started off right, Carlos spoke about leadership. To follow it up, we had the wonderful Arlene Arias speak about the importance of volunteerism, and Eugene Alteri, the president of the board of Operation Smile Panama, speak about the 20th anniversary of Operation Smile Panama. We also presented on the pillars of student programs, and got to give presentations on how to present Operation Smile to different groups. We also had students present on leadership, education, service, and awareness. Each group came up with a creative way to present on their topics, and each presentation was unique. Finally, Megan’s hard work paid off in a fun, though chaotic way. The scavenger hunt challenged the students in new and different ways, including asking them to translate from French to English in order to encourage them to experience a bit of the mission process. They also wore bandanas, to simulate having a cleft deformity, and had to see if they’d receive a mission or not. There were also the comical mishaps, such as the flying controller. Jenn dropped it, not only did it fall but also exploded into different parts, the batteries rolling everywhere. The participants were also very gregarious; one memorable student’s suggestion on fundraising was to get "hot girls" to hand out flyers to passing cars. After the conference ended for the day, we worked on an Operation Smile fundraiser that was providing a portion of its profits to Operation Smile. After dinner, we headed to the grocery store for some candy, for the conference, naturally. To top it all off, to end the day, we had a cleansing party, having a competition to see who had the dirtiest face. After all, the team that cleanses together stays together!

On a final note, the Team Panama conference song for 2011 is: Watagatapitusberry. Check it.

 

Our students organizing themselves into "age groups" during the 

pre-op stage of the "What if you were a patient" scavenger hunt

Día Libre!

We had one more free day today before the conference starts tomorrow morning so we decided to spend the day soaking up all Panama City has to offer. We spent the morning doing an interview on Radio Hugar with Xenia, Carlos, and the three Panamerican students informing the listeners in Panama on where the mission screening will be located this Sunday, how they can be helped by Operation Smile, our U-Lead conference, and how the organization has changed all of our lives for the better. Despite the fact that there were nine people in a tiny sound proof room with only three microphones, the interview went surprisingly well. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room, we all shared our heart-filled stories and tried our best to encourage all the listeners in need to come to the screening on Sunday and seek help. After we wrapped up our interview we headed to lunch at a beautiful country club right on the ocean. We were lucky enough to spend lunch with Arlene Arias, the regional advisor for Central America and the Caribbean regions, as well as one of our guest speakers for the U-Lead conference. After lunch we all crammed back into two cars and headed to the Panama Canal! We took a scenic route there and drove by the United States Embassy as well as many other landmarks that exemplified the history between the U.S. and Panama. The Canal was everything we could have expected, even James and Dani were impressed! We watched at least five huge ships slowly ease through the Miraflores Lock. We were all fascinated watching the water change levels and the ships lower down into the next lock. It was truly an amazing experience to watch how the Canal operates and so interesting to learn the history of the Canal. We wrapped up the day with a visit to Panama City old town. The vibe of the city immediately changed from fast pace city traffic to a serene and calm oasis of old brick roads and crumbling buildings, similar to something you might see in the French Quarter in New Orleans. We ate diner at a little restaurant in the square called Casablanca and then headed back to the hotel to go over any last minute details for the start of the conference tomorrow. After weeks of planning, we can’t believe that the beginning of the U-Lead conference in Panama has finally come! We are looking forward to what tomorrow has in store for us and as always we will tell you all about it mañana!

Preparation Day

We began today with a delicious breakfast laid out by the hotel.  Empanadas, fresh fruit, and eggs amongst other things were graciously made available to us.  After we ate, we were reunited with Xenia Alvarado, the executive director of Operation Smile Panama.  We were then driven a couple of miles down the road to the children’s hospital that our U-Lead conference will be held in.  After being given a quick tour of the auditoriums that are being donated for our use, we now have a much better idea of how to organize our break out sessions and group get togethers.  Our new friends Roberto, Ana, and Maria were also able to meet up with us (they were ditching school…shhh don’t tell) and we all drove together to the Operation Smile Panama headquarters.  This was really exciting for all of us and a lot of picture taking in front of the OS Panama sign ensued.  Xenia gave us the official tour of headquarters, which actually has an uncanny semblance to the Norfolk headquarters.  After re-working our schedule due to a small misunderstanding, Xenia brought us to the mall to buy supplies for posters, the service project, and the scavenger hunt.  More details on the scavenger hunt are soon to follow, but basically it will allow students to go through the “mission” process.  Anyways…back to the mall.  This mall is INSANE.  It actually happens to be the biggest mall in all of Central America.  No big deal or anything.  We had an authentic Panamanian lunch which was composed of juices (jugas) of many different flavors and a pile of food with four different types of meat, plantains, French fries, and many other things. It was certainly a fun introduction to Panamanian culture.

            After lunch we began the real goal of the day: get prepared for the mission. We found a store in the massive mall that had everything we needed—poserboard, tape, construction paper, paint, markers—you name it, we bought it. While Panama uses the US Dollar, this shopping trip really proved how we could get a bang for our buck, getting a lot of supplies while staying within the budget. We returned to the Panama HQ to work on preparation for the conference. We had to make posers to show participants where the auditorium was inside the hospital we visited. We also made sure to work on the kinks of our scavenger hunt. Megan Llyod has been in change of putting particular attention to developing a fun scavenger hunt that would challenge students to deal with the difficulties of a mission experience, mimicking the steps from finding the location of the site to understanding the foreign language of the doctors to dealing with the shame of having a facial deformity.

After a long day of work, we were graciously welcomed into Xenia Alvarado’s beautiful home in downtown Panama City. Her charming urban apartment had an amazing view of the skyline and coastline. Our student helpers, Roberto, Ana, and Maria and much of the Alvarado family joined us. We quickly learned the importance of family in Operation Smile Panama, as a Xenia’s mother, “Mamma Xenia,” treated us to a homemade authentic, delicious dinner of rice and chicken, cinnamon plantains, and beet infused potato salad with bread pudding for dessert. The Operation Smile Panama team of students, staff, and family really showed their colors today—proving to be immensely generous and passionate members of the Op Smile community. We felt like we were having dinner with lifelong friends after a long day of preparation for the conference.

With that out of the way, tomorrow we are excited to have a “free day” in Panama where we have been promised a little extra fun. We’re going to be on a radio show, see the Panama Canal, and have lunch at a country club as honorary guests. Keep following! Our story has only just begun.

P.S. Mama Xenia told us that she's been referring to our conference as "that Wikileaks thing." Apparently U-Lead sounds a little like U-Leak with a Spanish accent. So here's to you Julian Assange!

Hitting The Ground Running!

After a day of traveling, we arrived in Panama City excited and eager to get acquainted with Panamanian culture. After going through customs we were greeted by our mission sponsor Carlos Veron, and the in-country support team that has been helping us plan. Anna, Maria, Roberto, and their sponsor Gabi from the Panamerican School immediately made us feel welcome. We got to see the bright, beautiful Panama City skyline as we drove to our hotel, the Torros de Alba. After getting settled, reviewing our plans for the next two days and getting some of the conference supplies organized, the students and sponsor from the Panamerican School generously treated us to an authentic local dinner near our hotel. It was a chance for us to get to know eachother and share a few laughs over great food like Sancocho  Panameno. At the University Symposium we attended in January, staff had challenged us to use the Magee's kitchen to make some Panamanian food. Tonight we discovered that the Sancocho we made in Virginia was just like the real thing. We’ve only been here a few hours but we’re already having a great time. The nice weather, welcoming people, and good food have made it a great experience so far. 

P.S. James is especially excited to leave the sunless Arctic fortress that is Boston. Today Carlos told him that he was so white he reminded him of a Edward Cullen from Twlight. *Thanks Carlos*

U-Lead Panama Preview #2

Well, it's almost time! Two more days until we fly down to Panama city. As we're working to finish out our midterm exams and get the heck out of school, we're also trying to tie up any loose ends for U-Lead Panama. Planning has been narrowed down, and now we're just making sure we are packing everything up. We can't forget anything! Yet another conference call scheduled for Saturday morning. It goes without saying that  we're extremely excited to do our part to spread the growth of student volunteerism while going on a pretty cool trip to Central America.

Here's another sneak peak of what we have in store for students at the U-Lead conference: Day two will be centered around teaching the students about the Operation Smile medical mission experience. Since all four of us have had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go abroad as a high school student educator on an Operation Smile medical mission, we're going to do our share to encourage student involvement in Panama. Each of our lives was changed in a profound way by our experience. A mission experience is something that one can never forget. In-country support is crucial to the success of a mission because only in-country volunteers completely understand the culture and language they are working in. Students in Panama have many more opportunities than American students to attend and support medical missions, so we want to make sure they are excited to go and ready to help where they can. We'll have guest speakers who have significant experience on missions who can share their stories in Spanish (we are trying to have bi-lingual conference since no hablamos espanol). We'll also be teaching learning modals to teach children on medical missions such a nutrition and dental hygiene. This information can have a life saving effect on a child's life, and students at the U-Lead conference will be given the opportunity to practice presenting these modals in a children's wing of a hospital. We will also emphasize the crucial role of telling your story. Since mission opportunities are so limited, especially for American students, we fully understand the vital importance of spreading the story of that experience with those around you to inspire change. Teaching students how to share their experience in a meaningful way that inspires others is a significant step in giving these Panamanian students the tools to inspire waves of change.

Shout Out: U-Lead India

While we are working to put together the final pieces of the conference before we leave, our College Council friends on Team India, Claire Crawford, Jake Keller, and Logan Disch, are already hard at work in Mumbai setting up their conference.  Since both U-Lead missions are pilot missions to start a broader university level initiative, we hope to learn from our successes and mistakes in our respective countries to create a foundation for the many U-Lead missions to come.

U-Lead India has the same goals at U-Lead Panama, but we have been planning separately. This reflects the fact that each U-Lead mission will cater to a different set of needs, since each foundation country has a different level of student involvement and resources. Each country is of course very different and offers a broad range of opportunities and challenges. Together, Team India and Team Panama will combine our months of work into one pool of resources for future leaders to use as they see fit. Future U-Lead Missions will be comprised of at least one College Council member with experience and a couple of strong students from the Student Programs community. Numbers will depend of the needs of each mission site, and the College Council members will work to facilitate the planning of each unique conference. Although we must admit we were initially a little intimidated by the prospect of designing our own conference without much staff involvement, U-Lead is an exciting opportunity for university students involved in Operation Smile to make a direct impact on shaping the leaders of tomorrow. Now that's pretty exciting! All seven members of the current College Council are eager to share our efforts with the broader university community and enable university students to inspire the change they want to see in the world.

Good luck, Team India! We know your conference is going to be a resounding success.
To follow their mission go to the U-Lead: Mumbai, India 2011 site.