While many students from the University of South Florida spent their spring break soaking up the sun at the beach, others dedicated the week to volunteer medical services in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Ella Rafati, a biomedical sciences major with a health communications and journalism minor, traveled with a group of 16 students and two professors from the Honors College to work in elderly care facilities. The students shadowed medical professionals and learned about patient care. They also studied the health care systems in Central America and expanded their knowledge of the Spanish language.
“You are having your perspective challenged all the time and that was really exciting for me,” Rafati said. “I didn’t know any Spanish and by the end of the week I was able to talk to the patients, all of it in Spanish.”
One of the advisors on the trip echoed Rafati’s experience. Cayla Lanier, an academic advisor in the Honors College, explained that while any travel abroad is an eye-opening experience, service abroad takes students away from the tourist bubble.
“Trading hotels for home stays and tour buses for city busses allows you to get one step closer to the locals,” Lanier said. “Working alongside local doctors and coming face to face with the people you are helping breaks that barrier completely. All of a sudden you are confronted with humanity; the idea that despite our outward differences we are all inherently the same people shaped by different customs and experiences.”
By learning more about the Costa Rican culture and immersing herself the Spanish language, Rafati was able to interact more with the patients and make connections.
“There was a huge barrier in terms of interaction,” Rafati said. “You know you come to this place, you don’t speak their language and you’re obviously like a stranger to these patients. And then all of a sudden you want to touch their hand, massage them and ask them how they’re feeling. Language breaks down that wall.”
Rafati worked closely with the physical therapists and elderly patients with Alzheimer’s. She said while they had an itinerary for each day, it was more fun when they deviated from the schedule and just went with whatever task the doctors presented for that day.
“I really had to try hard and learn, and that was memorable,” Rafati said. “One of the doctors had to give me more paper because I was taking notes while I was there. I ended up with six sheets of paper of different words I was learning, different types of food, numbers, and the parts of your body.”
Lanier urges students interested in medical mission trips to travel and experience helping people in other cultures. But students must have a passion for service and compassion for people in order to be successful, Lanier said.
“Rubbing lotion on dry skin became a massage that provided comfort in addition to care,” Lanier said. “In the faces of the elderly people I served at the nursing home in Cartago, I saw my grandparents and my parents, and was compelled to shake hands and say, ‘Buenos Dias’ to every person every morning, even to those who couldn’t speak back.”
As a leader of service trips, Lanier likes seeing her students enjoy the same experiences she has.
“There are the tangible benefits, like learning how to take blood pressure, as well as the intangible: the joy in the student’s eyes, the thank you’s, and feeling I get when they tell me this trip confirmed their desire to pursue medicine,” Lanier said.
She knows service trips allow her students to open their eyes to the world around them and see how they can have an impact to make it better.
“I heard about the trip through another student and was interested in learning more,” biomedical sciences junior D’andre Williams said. “It would be an amazing experience to be able to go to another country and help people in need. I am definitely considering going on a trip in the future.”
In addition to the service work on the trip, the students visited a local market, a volcano, hot springs and an orphanage. They stayed in apartments with host families that cooked them traditional Costa Rican foods.
“You get to see, taste, hear, smell and live the culture of other humans and find beauty in the differences of other cultures,” Lanier said. “It doesn’t matter where, when or for how long, but leave the country and lose yourself in the service of others for a little bit.”
Photo Credits:
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College of Arts and Science website
Previously Published for The Digital Bullpen