Dr. Johnson

Hi everyone! Tomorrow is thursday and it is our last day of surgeries for the trip - we didn't have enough people to fill friday. It's a catch 22 because we are loving it here but we are also pretty tired working so much and getting up so early every day. Here are some pictures of some kids that we've taken care of. We are doing well and miss you all!

Michelle got to perform an important part of this man's surgery. This guy is 79 years old and has this massive growth in his left nostril. So Michelle gladly scrubbed in and actually got to cauterize the last little chunk of growth holding the thing in the guys nose and pull it out all by herself!!! he is the sweetest guy ever and he is so happy now! Good job Michelle!

Biggest surgery of the trip

Today was a pretty good day - especially for a monday. The day went very smoothly, we got done early, it went by pretty fast, and I went under the knife. Yes, I - Mallory June Airhart - had two moles removed. Michelle sat near by and tried to escape my grasps the entire time. But she made sure to document the whole event....Oh and just a warning, if you are a little squeamish you may not want to scroll down too quickly...

It's sunday - our last day of rest. Happy birthday Michelle! Today we have, so far, gone out to a market and we also went to another animal place - this one lets the animals roam around. You will see the place in a few pics below, and you can notice how close we got to the giraffes!!!! Today is a pretty windy day, but the sun is out and it feels great. We are about to go do rounds real quick at the hospital and then our plans are to rest some more :) Hope you all are having a great weekend! Oh, the top picture is Michelle, Jo, and I flashing my signature dance move Zim style!

the weekend!

Hey everyone!

It is finally the weekend and we couldn't be happier! It is so nice to have a break! We even got to sleep in until 8 today :) The week ended well and we did a total of about 35 surgeries I think - 7 each day. All the kids are doing well and we didn't have any emergency situations or anything like that happen. The families we are meeting are so cute and the kids here are so strong - they barley cry at all. Everyone is so nice and it's hard to say good bye to people.

Today we got to go to the local shopping area and we got all kinds of neat stuff! It was a very cool center with lots of fun stores. We took all 5's and 1's to shop with and it was so odd to us that every single store we went to thanked us for using 1's. Their faces literally lit up with excitement and they all said Oh thank you so much for the 1's! They would have this new permanent smile on their faces. It's amazing what people are thankful for here - we have life pretty darn good in the states!

After shopping we went to a wild animal park. The animals they have there are ones that were mistreated somewhere else and were very sick. The park helps them become healthy once again, but then they have to keep them there because they would die - most likely be killed by hunters - if they were set free. A lot of them have lost their umph to be able to survive in the wild. We were a little bummed because we were told that they have an elephant to ride that wasn't there anymore and we didn't see any giraffes either. The lions were pretty cool though. They are absolutely HUGE!!!! Way taller and bigger than I would have thought. One of the females head was just massive! The growls they would make when they were feeding them practically shook the ground - I've never heard a sound so deep - almost like you could feel it!

Tomorrow is Michelle's birthday so happy birthday Michelle!!!!! I'm not sure what we are going to do tomorrow - most things are closed because it's Sunday and Sunday is the day of rest so most people around here are having church services in the fields or enjoying their time off. We are surely going to enjoy sleeping in :) See you all soon!

~M&M (our official nicknames of the trip)

More pictures-hospital, dinner, and game park

Mguanani

Mguanani! That means good morning for those of you who don't speak shona :) We have not been able to post until now due to the in and out availability of our internet. We have made it to Harare safely and have just finished our second full day in the hospital! We've done a total of 13 surgeries in two days! In the pictures below you will see Michelle's first African meal - she ate the whole thing! You will see a typical street in Harare, the hospital we are working in, the huge spider we found in our bathroom - yikes! And a couple kids. It takes forever to post a picture and posting video is impossible so I will try to put some more up later. Our lodge is VERY nice, the team we are working with is great, the weather is perfect, Michelle's luggage is finally here after being lost for 4 days, the kids we are working with are super cute and their families are very sweet. The hospital's here work a little different and we are still getting in the swing of things but so far so good. Yesterday Michelle worked in the recovery room and I worked on the ward and today we switched. All is going well and we will post again soon! Hope you all are doing well and not missing too much :)

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