Medical Mission Trip to Haiti and the Dominican Republic
By Jessica Wise
There is a proverb written by Solomon that says, “A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure”. Throughout this trip I experienced the meaning of that proverb, and although I had many projects planned, it was God who directed my steps. My project entailed three parts, first a visit to Barahona, Dominican Republic to work on a computer program for the clinic there, then on to Port au Prince to visit specific Haitian earthquake refugee families that I knew from previous work, and lastly on to Passe Catabois, Haiti to volunteer in the hospital there.
Arriving to the clinic in the Dominican Republic I encountered many problems. The clinic is run by “Children of the Nations”, a Christian organization for children. My goal of my time in the Dominican was to help them get their computer system set up and get the nurses started on computer classes. The main problem was that when I arrived, the clinic had many more other electronic problems that needed to be fixed first. I spent some time fixing their internet connections, and their skype connections so that they could communicate with the international office in the States. Then I also spent a few days trying to get their x-ray machine working. The remainder of my time was spent planning for future teams, and setting up all of the computer basic skills programs on their computers. The idea is that now that we have to programs installed, future teams and missionaries will be able to use the software to train the nurses. We realized that to correct all of these electronic and mechanical problems that we were having, we need to set up a computer technician and medical machine technician to visit the clinic and do repairs at least once or twice a year.
My patience was stretched even more upon arrival to Port Au Prince. I arrived by bus, after taking the treacherous road through the flooded Dominican-Haitian border. I was staying with the Tlucek Family in Port au Prince, while I was supposed to be connecting with the “Children of the Nations” staff in Haiti to go visit the 15 families we had had in our Dominican Clinic in the aftermath of the earthquake. Well, after waiting two full days for the Children of the Nations Missionaries to come pick me up, I was finally able to visit just one family. This was very disappointing for me to not get to see the other families who were expecting me, but God clearly had a plan. It just so happened that the family that I visited was the one family that I had connected with the most! Even more amazing was the time I spent with the Tlucek missionary family. I had not planned on spending any time with them at all, but because of the delays with Children of the Nations, I was able to spend a lot of time helping the Tluceks with their children’s ministry. The family amazed me in their habit of going to God in prayer about every miniscule detail of their lives and their ability to live in the moment even when they consistently had about 25 different people in their house from day to day.
For the last part of my trip, I spent two weeks in Passe Catabois, Haiti. It is a tiny rural village in Northern Haiti. For example, the only way to get there is by first taking 10 seated propeller plane and then a hour long motor bike ride to the village. I learned so much from the Doctors I worked with there and the Haitian people.
They are truly an amazing people, with more joy despite their circumstances than I have ever seen. The main problems that affect this village and most impoverished villages in rural Haiti, are AIDS, Tuberculosis, Cholera, and malnutrition. Many of the health issues could be improved with more education. They need more help with programs to educate the people on the major illnesses and how to prevent them. They are also short staffed at the hospital, with only two doctors. One doctor has started a training program for Haitian nurses which is already becoming a huge success. I think the most important thing that I learned in Haiti was the importance of having compassion as a doctor. The missionary doctor that I worked with would sometimes just sit with patients, not talking or anything, just being there. The more time I spent with the HIV and TB patients, the more they taught me and inspired me. Also, I was encouraged by the doctor’s ability to really hold on to all of the positive things that happened in the hospital, and it was those positive things and God’s support that carried them through the overwhelming sickness and death that occurred every day. Each day we would start in the hospital with a time of devotion and worship, and seeing all the patients that had HIV and TB just pour out their heart to God was truly inspiring.
This experience affected my personal and professional life in many ways. It helped broaden and expand my world awareness especially by being able to meet new missionaries in Haiti and see how God is using their lives and ministries. The public health situation in Haiti is very complex especially with all of the different organizations that are working there, and it was great to have more exposure to that. I have had a desire to work in Haiti and the Dominican since I was about 19 years old, but this experience just reconfirmed that calling.
Even my studying was impacted this semester. I found myself more interested and motivated to learn because of each patient that I meet and my desire to be able to return to serve these people someday.
I think the most important lesson that can be transferred back to the U.S. and my medical school life in Mexico, is just how truly blessed I am. It doesn’t take much time in Haiti to realized that, but unfortunately it is something easily forgotten when I am back in my luxurious life in Mexico and the U.S. There is a verse in I Corinthians that says, “ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me”. It is a great reminder to me to continue working hard through the grace of God in order to advance in this career and surpass the challenges of Medical school.
I would like to share with you one last journal entry that I wrote upon returning from my trip…
I started my journey back on the back of a dirt bike, watching the sun rise. It’s a great time to think as you weave in and out of the donkeys traveling to the market. When we were crossing the river, the river guy accidentally dropped my whole suitcase in the river, and I had to walk through about 5 inches of mud, but thankfully had brought a change of shoes and was able to get the mud off my pants before I boarded the plane. It was a long trip back, but it definitely allowed me to process some of what I had seen. The nagging question that had first appeared back in the Dominican Republic resurfaced…”What do I do now? How do I live in upper class Mexico when I’ve just witnessed children dying every day of malnutrition?”
One thing that Fraser Ratzlaff, a COTN friend that I meet in the Dominican Republic, and I decided is that it’s extremely hard to have a “middle of the road reaction”, for example, it’s easy to either 1.) freak out and want to tell the whole world about all the injustices that you’ve just witnessed and that they must start doing something about them or 2.) think of it as just a crazy “theme-park” experience and completely put it out of your mind when you return to real life. What is really hard to do is to live in a balance between those two reactions. The best way I’ve found to do this is to stay involved, any way that you can be involved even if it’s tiny since I’m in school and have very little time. The work in the Dominican Republic was a little easier for me because Children of the Nations is well established and the kids there have a chance for a future, where as the kids I worked with in Haiti, all my little soccer boys, have very little hope. Coincidently as the trip was coming to an end, I was just finishing readying the book “Heaven is for Real”, it’s true story about a little boy who died and went to heaven and lived to tell about his experience in heaven. Reading that book reminded me that there is always hope in God! Then I also read a verse that really encouraged me,
“..And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all of the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. –Eph 16:19.
I thought to myself, “as much as I loved those kids and patients in just the two weeks that I was with them, How much more must God love them, and if God loves them, who am I to question if he is taking care of them or not?”
I want to thank the Baptist Medical and Dental Foundation for supporting me in this medical missions trip. As you can see, it was a very impactful experience for both my personal and professional life. By the grace of God, I was able to start a program at my school for my students to continue going to volunteer in Passe Catabois, Haiti. There are in fact three non-Christian medical students there now working with the Christian Doctors, so your prayers would be appreciated that they would see the light of God while working there.
I have lots pictures and even more about my experience on my blogsite http://jessicawise.wordpress.com . I will also attach some pictures. Please let me know if you have any more questions about my project!!
Jessica Wise
Second Year Medical Student Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara
Posted on
Tue, November 29, 2011
by wise