The past week in Nicaragua was a life changing experience for myself. I have learned so much not only in the medicine field but also learned how truly blessed I am.
Within the people we looked at, we encountered many health problems. All of them were health related and we saw many of the same problems again and again. The majority of the problems I saw were fungal infections on the body. This was due to the dirty water being used to shower with. Another common issue was parasites. These problems were addressed by an informative teaching to the people about using clean water and the parasites were addressed by prescribing a anti parasite medicine.
Within our group there we had a few health problems throughout the week. This was mainly diarrhea. It made night time a little more unpleasant but I managed!
I learned many things about the medicine world while in Nicaragua. We had four different classes taught by doctors while down there. A pharmacy class, a suture class, an injection class and a natural medicine class. But I feel what I learned most was realizing how blessed I was and seeing the lives of the people. They saw us being there as such a blessing to them, but they were such a blessing to me. They really humbled me and helped open my eyes even more. Life to them is their neighbor and there kids. Loving one another and living with what God has created for them. Whereas in America life is about things that control people and money and power. I know there are many awesome people here but this just made me realize a lot about how much I have and how truly blessed I am.
I see this trip definitely affecting my future career in medicine. I really want to become an M.D and go to a country less fortunate than mine and teach people about medicine. Teach the villages on how to give proper treatment and using what they can around them to help treat the people. I want to become apart of the community and gain their trust and really love on them. Then through time teach them while I am a witness for the kingdom. We have impacted many people down in Nicaragua. We went to 3 different communities and saw many, many people. We also taught about germs and practical stuff that we know in America but most Nicaraguans do not.
This trip has greatly expanded my world awarness and has shown me about the great need for servants to other countries that have almost nothing. It has shown me that much sickness in other countries can be avoided so easily. All they need is the information and maybe some resources. Knowledge is greatly needed. Lastly, the thing I remember most is a time during a house visit where I felt God telling me to pray for a boy who was half paralyzed. I almost got up and left but I just thought of how I must obey in order for God to use me! So I decided to go back to the family with the translator and told them I wanted to pray for them. I lead them all in prayer as I put my hands on the boy. Although there was no miraculous healing or what not I felt the Lord very pleased and my spirit was greatly lifted. I also saw everyone in the family with big smiles too. I felt like this was a big leap for the Spirit inside me and I hope I get many more chances to pray for more people. I just know God wants to use me in a big way and it can’t happen without my obedience.
Posted on
Thu, January 19, 2012
by nath