While many students chose to utilize our randomly placed (but so necessary) February break to relax, lay on a beach somewhere, even get a little bit of color, I chose to take a different route, heading to Honduras with Global Medical Brigades on a service trip. Don’t get me wrong—I have celebrated every break until this one to the fullest extent with seven(-ish) days of bliss: good food, rest, visiting friends, and all that good stuff. However, for this break, I felt like it was time to get out of my comfort zone and turn my energy into productivity. I was incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity and strongly encourage anyone interested in health, development, exploration of new cultures, and overall new hands-on experiences to consider taking a trip similar to this one.
Global Brigades is a national organization that seeks to establish holistic communities through implementation of their nine different brigades, working in harmony to benefit the community with solutions to their problems and response to their needs. Brandeis currently participates in both a Public Health Brigade and a Medical Brigade and will soon add a Microfinance Brigade to our chapter. As a pre-med student, I have continuously felt drawn to topics surrounding medicine, biology, administering of care, and public health but have never been able to explore these with the skillset I have gained while at Brandeis. This trip allowed me to fulfill multiple arenas and hopes, all within the parameters of what we already knew. Our trip was one that is not simply put into a few paragraphs; attempting to describe fully what I personally got out of this trip is an impossible feat at this moment and will take years of reflection and exploration of my memories, thoughts, and feelings. The tangible goals and purpose of the trip, however, allowed for me to connect my pre-med interests with something we are all seeking: fulfillment by human connection.
In the week that we were there, our activities spanned from hosting a three-day clinic set-up in a school; visiting a community where a microfinance brigade had created a community bank; dining with the president of Honduras; playing regular soccer games (not well, on my part); regular reflections; bumpy bus rides with loud American music to sing along to; communal meals; and continuous perspective, to name a few. The clinic that we set up ended up serving over 600 patients (609 to be exact), providing them with consultations from doctors, a visit to the dentist, a pap smear and pelvic exam at the gynecologist, sexual education and hygiene, medications to alleviate symptoms, as well as fluoride rinses for all children. The ability for us to to do all of this came with an incredible amount of help from individual fundraising, group fundraising, and donations of medicine and other medical tools. To me, an incredible part of this trip, in addition to the act of experiencing it all, was the generosity and awareness of others that helped us to make this trip happen. Although the 25 of us with Brandeis were the ones who had our hands involved in facilitation of the specifics and organization of Global Medical Brigades, none of the different pieces of the trip would have been possible without a much larger network of family, friends, healthcare professionals, and peers. I am amazed at how easily we can all coexist to work towards such an important cause, and participating in such a trip has inspired me to continue onwards with such actions and sentiments after Brandeis.
There are so many places in need of a helping hand in the world; if we all push ourselves to take that one extra step towards doing so, whether it is through donation, volunteer work, policy implementation, or any action intertwined with our future paths, we can create incredible change and establish more harmony between cultures. My perspective on where I want to go in life, how I want to live it, and what matters to me have all genuinely changed solely because I made the decision to take a week out of my year to give to others, rather than myself. Those who helped me actually see out my desires to go on this trip influenced my life in a way that would never have happened without this trip. I am grateful and blessed to have partaken on such an amazing experience and to have been welcomed by the communities and individuals in Honduras into their lives and culture.
My one request of those reading this is that we all take a few more minutes every day to look into these other cultures, learn about them, find paths through which we can assist, and help spread the word. We can all play a part, and I promise you, you will never regret it. I look forward to hearing others’ stories about experiences that are as life-changing as this was and cannot wait to educate and be educated about ideas surrounding these. Step up, act up, and globalize yourself; you’re doing yourself and all those around you a disservice if you don’t!