Mini-recap: All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. While I wish that Jessica and her friends would stop describing every unfamiliar thing as “weird” or “freaky”, it was obvious that they were genuinely moved by Meena’s plight. Good on them for raising awareness of cleft palates. The condition is relatively easy to fix if the patient has access to proper medical care. I forgot to mention this below, but Meena was apparently raised by her grandmother from birth because her biological parents felt that they couldn’t handle raising a disabled child. I hope that she’ll be reunited with her entire family once again and will have access to the therapy and schooling that she will now need.
Live blog below:
10:32: Jessica Simpson’s Smile Ambassador page on the Operation Smile website is here.
10:31: Operation Smile’s official Twitter feed just sent out the following: “Meena you are beautiful inside and out! To help children like Meena, share your Smile for Smiles at www.vh1smile.com & VH1 will donate $1.”
10:29: And that’s it! Did they cut the cow urine scene?
10:28: : Ken says that “India has been like a jewel box to us.” Jessica arrives to the Bollywood party in a carriage carried by four men.
10:25: Jessica’s henna artist decides on a design consisting of an elephant playing a trumpet.
10:23: VH1 just ran a commercial promoting Operation Smile. Also says that they will donate one dollar for every photo uploaded to this site.
10:22: Good deed done, Simpson and her friends will get ready for a Bollywood party after the commercial break.
10:22: Remarkably, the surgery only takes 45 minutes. The child’s face is completely transformed. Visit Operation Smile’s website for more info on cleft palate surgery.
10:20: Meena is going in for her surgery to repair her cleft palate.
10:18: Jessica says one out of every 500 Indian children is born with a cleft palate, the highest rate in the world. Jessica has been an ambassador for Operation Smile for years.
10:17: Via Ken Paves’ Twitter feed (Paves is Jessica’s bestie and hairdresser who has accompanied her) a photo of Meena, a little girl with a cleft palate (photo is post-surgery). See it here.
10:11: This is gross. The trio learns how to use Neti-pots and then tries a digestive tea at a Ayurvedic clinic. Lots of burping.
10:09 “I love India, the people are so happy and sincere.” – Jessica. Yuck!
10:06: By the way, all of the yogis were subtitled.
10:05: They are off to laughter yoga. Ken thinks the laughter yogis “have the most beautiful eyes in the world, CaCee thinks the whole thing is “kind of freaky.”
10:04: J-Simps is learning Bollywood dancing!
10:01 Wait, what channel is VH1 again? (Haven’t watched regularly since the mid-1990s.)
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