Another Adventure with Operation Smile

So about two days and 12 hours ago (when I'm writing this), I left for a new journey, to a place I'd never been to, on an exciting adventure with a charity that I hold close to my heart. I am currently on a mission with Operation Smile. It only took just under two days to get to our final location, after many security checks, stress, exhaustion, and over 30 hours of travel (with an overnight break in the middle). It's been a whirlwind of a journey so far, and even though it was stressful and I forgot to bring lots of the things I needed, or planned to bring with me (some of which have sort of worked out), at least now we're here, and the real journey can begin.

For the next couple of days, I will be acting as a kind of journalist, sharing things on social media, taking photos, writing stories, blogging... and I will get to meet children just like me, people born with a cleft, or other craniofacial deformity. It's not every day that I encounter another with a cleft, despite there being a large enough population globally. So it'll be nice to meet so many people with clefts, hearing their stories (if I can get someone to translate them for me), and being able to share something unique in common with them. No matter how different our stories are, we'll all have one thing in common. I'll also be able to show a photo of myself in an effort to try and reassure the parents, that everything will be okay.

Tomorrow I have a day off, and then on Thursday the real work begins. On this mission, we have one day of screening, whereas on my previous mission there were two days, and then we will have four surgery days, and a team day. Very short, but still a fulfilling experience nonetheless.

I can't wait for the action to start, and despite the dodgy WiFi, the lack of English speaking staff at the hotel, and the rock-hard beds, this will be an adventure to remember!

On our way to China, we had a six hour layover to Amsterdam. It made me want to go back in the summertime to visit it, and explore the city a lot more, as we just saw a few parts of it.

The leaves were so beautiful in Amsterdam. Here we are doing the obligatory "throwing leaves" photo (this one was taken just after the leaves were in the air.)