The hours are long – up before the sunrise and home long after sunset – but what a great day it was today at the hospital with everyone working together.  We accomplished so much – working side by side our Liberian colleagues we completed 21 surgeries.  The children and their families both in the recovery room and the pediatric ward are so grateful. They treated us to beautiful songs of thanks – Great, loud, joyous African voices.  Today we also hosted 5 professional lectures.  It is fun to listen to our Liberian nurse and doctor colleagues talk about the new skills they’ve gained and information they are learning and how it will help them serve their community long after the CSI team has gone.

The word is out that the CSI team is in country, so we also have many new patients arriving each day.  Families who’ve traveled from near and far, pleading to come in to be screened, hoping for answers and a chance to receive life-changing surgery.

Our Liberian colleagues are not the only ones learning and growing this week.  Tonight after dinner, the CSI team had a very special guest speaker, Sargent Caesar.  Caesar works security for the Firestone Duside Hospital, but her passion is working with families.  She spoke to us about domestic violence in Liberia and the roles parents play in this culture.  She had us all sitting on the edge of our seats for 90 minutes!

Firestone continues to provide amazing support to make this trip such a huge success – everything from housing to meals and transportation and security – the team here makes us feel like we are coming “home” after a long and fulfilling day of work.

See more photos from today here.