Farmer 'N The Dell

As many of you know, I returned a few days ago from a week in Guatemala performing anesthetics for those too poor to pay. It was my first medical mission abroad, and although I scoffed when the organization with which I travelled called it a “Life Changing Medical Mission,” in the end, I had to admit that they were right. My life is changed, and I am grateful.

It’s easy as an American to become reactive. You are constantly bombarded by information and images: the internet, TV, radio, billboards. It can be dizzying trying to process all that stimuli, to rank it in terms of its importance, to try to form cohesive thought and not just spend your time intellectually sorting and discarding. The internet always has one more thing to offer, one more image to flash– a  24/7 bounty of choices that seems impossible to resist.

But when in Guatemala, when my access to the internet was dramatically reduced, my thoughts slowed to take in the work before me, and I slowed. I felt as though my heart rate dropped, my breath came in deeper, more regular intakes. In the central square of Antigua, I felt the relaxed pace of the place wash over me. I wanted to take a siesta, to let the Land of Eternal Spring wrap its unhurried arms around me in sleep.

But we didn’t sleep; we worked. And while working, I saw the work of others: the padre who had overseen the growth of the Catholic charity hospital in which I performed anesthetics, the nuns who cared for the orphans day in, day out, the caucasian woman (was she Canadian? American? European? I don’t know) who went from toddler to toddler patiently brushing  teeth. The place was packed with volunteers: Guatemalan, American, European. It felt good to make the transition from reactive to active. It felt healing to shift my focus from myself to others. And it felt uplifting to share this sense of mission with other volunteers and patients. There are plenty of generous people in this world. The 737 in which I returned from Guatemala City was loaded with them.

Of course, writing this and truly understanding this are two different things. But I do encourage you, should the pace of American life leave you overwhelmed and fatigued, to try to find the community and solace of volunteer work. It just might change your life, too.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 10:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.