Jimena's Story: Medical Team from the Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota

Guest Blogger: Jimena

Jimena is a high school junior at Inter-American School in Xela, Guatemala. Jimena and four of her classmates volunteered to translate for the medical and dental teams from the Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota. This is the story of her experience, in her own words.

Community Service really opened my eyes. I learned to appreciate what I have. When I saw all of those people making a line to see the doctor I just thought about one thing. I am so glad I don`t have to pass by these to go to the doctor or the dentist. But then I thought how selfish I was being by thinking that and I realized that we were all here to help all of these people and I really got excited to start because I wanted to help this people get better.

I had some good times, Some bad times, some fun times, and some hard times. I really enjoyed to have had the opportunity to be in the Community Service of North Dakota. I learned many things while being in the mission. Some of the most funny and good times while being in the mission for me was that when we went near Solola, there was a hill in which our vans couldn`t pass through and so we had to walk down hill to get to the place were we were going to do our service. When we finally finished our job there, a big rain storm started pouring over us and we had to carry all of the equipment up hill again. So we started carrying all of the equipment and since we were down hill a huge river started flowing down hill. All of the village was made of dirt and so when it rained all of the dirt was made into a great puddle of mud. I honestly didn`t see a great lake of mud and so I started walkinh faster because it was raining harder. When I finally got near the vans I just felt that I started sinking. I didn`t know what was going on until I looked down. I was sinking in a mud lake. I started to force myself out of the mud lake and found out that my friends had not seen me. So I told them about what had happend to me in the lake and they started laughing at me. We laughed about my accident all the way home. Some of my hard times over the mission was getting up so early to be on time. I had to wake up at 6:00 a.m. every day to get dressed up, eat some brakefast,and brush my teeth. We had to be at the church by 7:30 a.m. to be ready to live to our next mission. Another hard part in the mission was being able to support the change of climate in the places we went.

This Mission really taught me to appreciate my style of life more. It also taught me to help people when ever you can, because there are some people that really need help. They don`t even have money to buy food, a toothbrush, or medicine. I would defenetly do community service again because you can learn alot of stuff about it. For me I learned to be greatful with the things I have because there are people that don`t have food everyday, and it was so sad to see. I can`t wait to go to the Florida mission. I liked helping people with some of thier problems.

1) June 1 Monday: 8:00a.m- 12:00p.m. (Medicine Inventory)*This day we had to be at the Saint Marks Episcopal Church at 8:30a.m. We had to organize all of the medicines that we were going to use in the medical mission. We had to count all of the medicine that was on each box. We finished at 12:00p.m.

2) June 29 Monday: 10:30a.m-6:30p.m. Medical Clinic(Xela)

* When they arrived we started working right away.I worked with Jennifer Risan, a medical student, that day. She was a nice lady. I had the honor to translate for her.

3) June 30 Tuesday: 7:30a.m.-8:00p.m. Medical Clinic(Chuguexa)

* Tuesday we had to be at the Episcopal Church at 7:30a.m. to go to Chuguexa and start working again. When we arrived I had the pleasure to work in the Dental station. I got to watch how they pulled people's teeth out.

4) July 1&2 Wednesday&Thursday: 7:30-9:30 Medical Clinic(Nuevo Chuatuj)

* Wednesday and Thursday we went to Coatepeque and I had the pleasure to work both days with Pam Pranke, a nurse. I was her translator and we told people how to take there medicines.

5) July 3 Friday:7:30-9:30 Medical Clinic (Pachaj)

* We were going to go to Santa Maria but the place were we were going to was occupied so we went to Pachaj! I once more had the pleasure to work with Pam Pranke.

6) July 4 Saturday:7:30-2:30 Medical Clinic(Xela)

* This was our last day with the Medical Team and we worked at the Episcopal Church. I worked half time with Jessica Risan helping her translate to the patients. Then I went to work at theDental Station with Anna Pranata, a dentist, and her assistant Jamee Weibe.

7) July 6-9 Monday- Thursday: 11:30-1:30(Ancianos)

* We got to eat Lunch with old people and got to know them a little. we spoke to different people there.

8)July 10 Friday: 8:00-12:oop.m. (School)

*We got to school at 8:00 and wrote in our blog our experiences in this Community Service.