It was a full day for the advance team of eight CSI volunteers, plus Don and Janet Darden from Bridgestone/Firestone and the invaluable Firestone drivers, cooks, guides and security folks.

We went to five schools/community centers to administer an oral medication used to treat and prevent intestinal parasites. These parasites pose a significant public health problem in developing countries like Liberia. The affliction affects a large percentage of children and causes significant health problems such as malnutrition, poor growth and even learning difficulties. We distributed deworming pills to about 2,000 children, and everyone who received the medication also got a Dum Dum sucker to help the medicine go down!

Tomorrow we meet and treat more of the glorious, amazingly photogenic, and patient children of this wonderful country. We have enough medication (and Dum Dums) to treat 5,500 children.

We can’t wait for the rest of the CSI team to arrive late tomorrow night to begin evaluating children for the surgical phase of our trip.