Sunday

Final blog from the Philippines! The last remnant of our week two mission team is here in Manila awaiting our second of three flights headed for Denver, arriving about 1:15 am Monday morning. A little over a week ago our whole team flew into Tagbilaran on the island of Bohol as strangers to the locals and to the new members joining our team from New York and Manila. Within hours of landing the Rotarians embraced us, our personal luggage, and almost 40 fifty-pound crates. They gave us a hugely entertaining welcome party making us all warmly welcome if not immediate friends. As the team focused on getting our operating units functioning properly, we all settled into a week doing what each of us does best. Most of us will come back home with life-changing stories-certainly of our patients and their families but often of ourselves as well. We received overwhelming support of the local medical personnel in the hospitals and cities in which we worked, the Philippine and Colorado Rotary Clubs that personally cared for us, and the Uplift Internationale Board of Directors and its advocates. What a privilege it is to have this heart-felt support to allow each member of the Operation Taghoy Mission 2012 team to use his and her God given skills to do what Uplift Internationale has done for 23 years-mending faces, one child at a time.
-Dr. Jerry Capoot