Throw back Thursday — Kids First Orthopaedics

Greetings from El Hospital General here in the lovely SMA. Today’s post will feature (drum roll please) a GUEST BLOGGER!!! For those of you that don’t know me I am Marissa Mencio, Dr. Greg Mencio’s younger daughter and our usual blogging whiz’s mission trip room. As some of you know RC is premed and interested in Orthopedics so I pushed her into the OR today so she can get her hands in on the action and pick up some learning points from the pros! “But what about the blog?!?” she insisted, “our readers need to know the happenings here!” So I tied up her sterile gown and told her not to worry Rissy (as she calls me) will take care of it. So herrreee wee goooooo!

Today is the second to last day and its going to be another busy one with 17 patients. We are already off to a good start despite last night’s late finish. Fortunately we made it to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants here in SMA at 9:47pm just before closing and they kindly accommodated our large, boisterous, sweaty and soaked group. Yes, that’s right soaked–as we were walking to the buses last night the skies opened up and the team was caught in a torrential down pour. My housemates informed me this morning that there was a storm of monsoon proportions last night that, “lit up the skies.” Yours truly had no idea and slept straight through! Fortunately, everyone survived and arrived at the hospital this morning ready for another day.

Today’s post is going to be a throwback to the first SMA trip back in 2005. I have just spent a long time going through old pictures and all I can say is I really hope photos can be uploaded today, you won’t want to miss these #throwbackthursday pics!

As you may know from our website, the core group was already established by the time we found San Miguel. The first trip was back in 1991 and at that time was called Healing the Children. The team traveled to various places in central and South America before we settled in SMA. We celebrated our 10th anniversary here in 2014, which makes this the 12th trip. The passing years have come with changes: we’ve welcomed some new regulars into the group and had to say goodbye to some of our veterans (Shout out to Judy: we all miss and love you!). People have gotten married, had kids, lost mustaches (ie, Mencio), and become grandparents (ie, Billy Chico). At the same time, so much as remained the same. To fully illustrate this I’ve collected some photos for your viewing pleasure because, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words

Judy back in 2005! We hope you know that you embody everything it means to be a part of this team!

…and is a team staple! Although he favors his Pollo Feliz KF shirt over those classy polos these days!

Joe is still the king of putting our kiddos to sleep safely.

Lynn is still mother hen, when she tells you to wrap instruments at the end of the day you WRAP!

Dana and Lester circa 2005. Leslie is still the most tan (sorry RC, you’ve become a close second place) and Dana is still bringing the sass and keeping these boys honest in the OR.

My dear old dad has indeed lost the mustache….

…but not his passion for helping as many kids as our team can in 5 days of operating (and we’ve got the schedule to prove it!)

And finally, we are still a team and above all have become like family. This is one aspect of this unique group I feel confident will never change.

Thank you to all of our supporters who make it possible for us to do what we do here to help the wonderful people of San Miguel de Allende.