Many of the patients came from the Department of Petén, 14 hours away. Mothers, fathers, sometime siblings, stayed for over a week in very, very humble facilities awaiting their turn for surgery. They were so grateful and patient—surely they had a direct line to angels.

We were also able to treat delightful 8 year old Alex, whose mother and sister brought him into the emergency room of the country hospital where we were working with a badly cut eyelid. He had fallen just minutes ago while chasing the neighbor's dog away. As it happened, one of the scheduled children was sick, so our prominent plastic surgeons were able to treat Alex. A good thing for him, as his tear duct had been severed. Yet, under the expertise of these untiring volunteer expert surgeons, he will not lose this important component of eye health.

Ingrid and Iris, 10 and 6 year old sisters, were treated for cleft lip and cleft palate and lip, respectively. Ingrid was so bored, waiting and waiting for days, she ended up as my "office helper" for a few hours. She wrote a little story about her life for me. Parents would go out beyond the hospital compound to find perfectly tree-ripe mangoes to bring as gifts. They hugged us and called the grace of God upon us in thanks for changing their child’s life.

Mr. Middle Class, humbled by his fellow-parents-in-need, learned that ‘All things come to he who waits’  when finally understanding that raising his voice and being demanding would give him no advantage at the Rotaplast Pre-Clinic, where all patients are evaluated as potential candidates. He had tears in his eyes when, on Post-Clinic day, he stopped his bright-pink baby stroller—something never seen by most of the indigenous parents—to hug me goodbye and ask that I thank the team for repairing his precious little baby’s lip.

The frantic calls came on Thursday, May 27, as we were having our "goodbye dinner". Pacaya, the volcano outside of Guatemala City had just erupted. We canceled our planned 4 a.m. departure on Friday morning to the Guatemala City airport, as we were unable to get official information about the safety on the roads and in the city. However, the next afternoon, as word reached us that Hurricane Agatha was on its way, with incredible downpours, the decision was made to move the team to Guatemala City, rather than possibly being stranded in Reu. It turned out to be a good move, as Agatha took many lives and homes and the two bridges connecting Reu with Guatemala City.

Everything in Guatemala City was covered in "ash", which was really a fine, black sand that got stuck in your hair, like when you lay on a beach. Schools were closed, streets were empty, people were asked not to leave their homes, churches forewent services. President Colom declared a state of emergency. Then on Sunday, as if all of that was not enough, a giant "sink hole" swallowed up a 3-story building in the city.

The airport was, of course, closed. American Airlines eventually allowed a change of travel plans for the team to leave from San Salvador on Wed. June 2. The earliest bus we could get to our unplanned journey to another country was June 1, so on that day, we took the 5-hour bus ride to San Salvador. On route, we witnessed a great deal of destruction caused by the storm. On June 2, team members heading for LAX and central parts of the country left at 6 am. The four of us returning to the East Coast left later in the afternoon via Miami. Sadly, our head nurse and quartermaster had to stay behind in Guatemala City with our boxes of medical equipment, which we could not import temporarily into El Salvador. They would not be returning home until  Sunday.