LEAP Mexico ‘26
My favorite thing in the world is to travel with nonprofits as a photographer, so I was grateful to be asked to join LEAP Global Missions on my second trip to Mexico in June. I’d been to Zihuatanejo with them back in 2019 before The Great and Useless Evil put the kibosh on my nonprofit trips for a while. Prior to that, I’d traveled with them to Haiti and Belize. In a nutshell, LEAP provides free surgeries for kids with various conditions in various places, and this Mexico trip would focus on ear reconstructions (which is wild to see in person – I’ll spare you the grislier photos).
Backseat homies
Some lovely folks from the Rotary Club of Ixtapa picked us up at the airport and drove us straight to the clinic where a room full of kids and their parents were already waiting. Zihuatanejo is a beautiful place, but golly was it hot and humid there. One of the locals said she didn’t remember it ever being that hot.
But lest I felt tempted to complain, I later overheard that some of the patients’ families had traveled upwards of 15 hours to be there, which was humbling to say the least. It goes to show that LEAP is meeting a serious need for people with few if any other options. This only further motivated me to take even my very humble role as seriously as possible.
I had a good conversation with Dr. Alejandra Garcia de Mitchell, who was leading the trip, while we waited to get through customs. I told her I always felt like the least important person on these trips — and was perfectly fine with that — but she reiterated the importance of supporters being able to see the impact LEAP has in the countries they serve. Well, keep scrolling.
The first afternoon was reserved for triage where the patients were evaluated in person and scheduled for surgery. Five surgeons in three operating rooms would end up treating 12 children over the next two days. Supporting them were multiple anesthesiologists, nurses, and other medical folks whose job titles I don’t remember or never really understood. It was fun being the only non-medical volunteer in the group; I was pretty clueless (and therefore interested) about every little thing going on around me.
Speaking of the team, I may as well gush about how great they all were now. Like I found out on my first trip with LEAP, it turns out that people who use their vacation days to do their jobs for free in order to help kids are predictably pretty great people. And being medical professionals, they’re also smart. Add to THAT a shared, external mission and you’ve got a perfect recipe for fast friends. Soon after getting home, our WhatsApp group was filled with “love you guys” and “miss you already” posts. I never went to summer camp, but I imagine it’s similar – a high for sure.
We stayed at Hotel Irma in Zihuatanejo, which had a pretty spectacular view of the water and surrounding town. The A/C was off in our rooms when we got there, so several of us took in the view while we waited for the rooms to cool? down? sort of? It got there eventually. I only brought one bandana as a sweat rag, and that poor little guy was begging for mercy by the end of the trip. It still may not be dry yet...
Anyway, the next day was the first of two days of surgeries. It’s been a few years, so I was once again relieved to find that I’m not squeamish in the operating room. As on previous trips, I had to keep reminding myself that the patients are anesthetized; they’re not feeling what I’m seeing. It also helps that everyone else in the room is casual about the blood, knives, and needles. Just another day in the office for them.
In case that makes them sound a little callous (they’re not), I’ll add that I was very impressed with everyone’s bedside manner on this trip. I’ve been on others where I felt this was lacking (the language barrier never helps) and came prepared to try to pitch in. I’ve never had surgery myself, but I have to imagine these kids were terrified. It was lovely to see our team, many of whom speak Spanish, joking and laughing with them right until they went under and just being gentle and kind the whole way through. It really was a great crew.
Some local folks were very kind about bringing in breakfast and lunch for us at the clinic, but it was catch as catch can between surgeries. The foyer and common areas were open to the outside and therefore very hot and humid (“for a Texan, you sure do whine a lot about the heat”), but the operating and recovery rooms had the A/C cranked all the way down. By virtue of my cap, ill-fitting Amazon scrubs, mask, and shoe covers (not pictured), I was able to cool off in the OR while taking photos, though I always had to be on my toes. It felt like my main job was to anticipate the medical staff and try to stay out of the way, which I think I managed to do okay. No one yelled at me anyway.
This little girl was so sweet – even on the verge of tears she always smiled for the camera.
On Friday morning, I tagged along with a small group to a lecture LEAP presented to some local nursing students. I hadn’t been on a trip where LEAP did this before, but it was both well attended and well received. Again, if families are having to drive 15 hours for their kids to get surgeries, I’m very much in favor of anything that encourages future nurses in Mexico.
Sorry, corner people, I couldn’t back up any more…
Backseat homies
On our final night, we walked down the beach from the hotel to our team dinner with the Rotary Club. I had misread an email or something and was by far the worst dressed, so that’s cool, but at least I’m not in any of the photos. As we were ocean-adjacent, I ordered the whole fried snapper, which was very good, but a gifted coconut shrimp from my neighbor’s plate gave me serious dish envy. Oh well. Next time.
Melissa being officially recognized as the best
Hu-goooo!
We (and by “we” I mean everyone but me) had already packed up all the trunks of medical equipment on Friday, so we were able to enjoy a relaxed breakfast at the hotel on Saturday before heading to the airport. We had a little time, so a group of us walked down the beach to the town market. I almost didn’t go because it was so humid, but sweat is temporary and memories are forever or whatever, so I went anyway. I didn’t buy anything, but I’m very glad I had time to shower when we got back ‘cause my shirt was soaked through. (Cue Michael Scott singing “feeling hot, hot, hot” with his steel drum.)
We got through airport security pretty quickly, and it was nice to share some drinks and snacks together before a surprisingly quick flight back to DFW. I think the pilot was booking it to avoid the black clouds that started chucking down soon after we landed.
It’s my blog and I can repeat myself if I want to: these trips are my favorite thing, and the people on this trip were the best. The two LEAP staff, Dawna and Gabby, did an amazing job coordinating everything, wrangling flight reservations, and were just lovely humans in general. To paraphrase Sir Michael Caine, if our team was the duck swimming calmly on the surface, they were the two feet paddling like the dickens underneath. (How’s that for a metaphor?)
I know real life can’t be like these trips for a variety of reasons, but I wish it could. In any case, it says a lot when you get home and wish you could turn right around and go back. Can’t wait for the next one. (Also, I need to learn Spanish.)
Pax.
/S
P.S. All words and opinions in this little blog are mine and don’t necessarily reflect those of LEAP Global Missions, their donors, or the other volunteers.