Missions of Mercy

But in the end, Dodrill, Gillmore and the rest of the construction crew and volunteers succeeded in building a gabled-roof, one-story building large enough to hold a meeting room, kitchen and men's and women's sleeping quarters.

The project has fostered similar efforts, Dodrill says. A group of Southwest Floridians is applying for nonprofit status to form an organization tentatively called Builders without Borders. Dodrill and others hope to build a medical clinic in Haiti and an elementary school in Rwanda next year.

The experience also has made Dodrill reassess his goals and achievements. "It really put things in perspective," he says. "I thought I had a tough job and career. ... I saw people there who work for an average wage of $2 a day. They're barely surviving on that. When we did this work and we had people come out helping us, [that meant] they didn't get paid that day."

Changing Lives

Dr. Manuel Peña spends his days fighting age. The Naples plastic surgeon nips and tucks the bodies of men and women who want to look younger and more attractive.

It's a good living, he admits, but it's not necessarily spiritually fulfilling.

"It doesn't feed the soul," he says, "Sometimes, you wonder what all this training was about."

He found his answer in medical missions abroad. Six years ago, friend and fellow plastic surgeon Dr. Joe Mazza, who practices in south Fort Myers, told him about the charitable works of Operation Rainbow, which organizes trips to operate on children and adults who otherwise wouldn't or couldn't get medical attention.

The plastic surgeons say their years of schooling paid off in Guatemala and later Brazil where they operated on children with deformities such as cleft palates and burn scars. "It's just doing the things that you're trained to do and making children and families happy without hassles," says Mazza, who now organizes such trips with the help of area doctors and others.

On his first mission to Guatemala, Peña remembers, the group took a seven-hour, 160-mile bus trip with at least 3,000 pounds of supplies. When they finally reached town, two surgeons performed 40 operations, repairing lips, palates and burns. They worked in operating rooms equipped with fly swatters.

The trips then expanded to Mexico and Brazil. In a 2001 mission to Brazil, Peña remembers operating on a boy whose ears were the object of ridicule. "They called him Dumbo because he had huge, protruding ears," says Peña, who's also done work abroad with Helping Hands Medical Mission and in Southwest Florida with Catholic Charities.

Each trip that Mazza has organized costs about $25,000, which is raised through donations.

A typical mission runs about 10 days. When locals hear that American doctors and nurses are coming, they arrive with just about every condition imaginable.

"Many times, we'll do a special mission for burns, or sometimes, we'll have orthopedic missions," Mazza says. Most missions are for children, but occasionally adults get treatment-including a woman in her 40s with a severely disfiguring cleft palate.

"In a couple of hours, you can change a child's life," Mazza says. "Here you are, a total stranger to these people, and they hand over their children to you in trust. They are so appreciative, moms crying, and then you start crying. It's just a joyful experience and you never forget it."

The surgeons are trying to raise money for another trip to Brazil next year. "This is what I went to school for," Peña says. "It keeps me sane."