ve had the opportunity to reflect on what I have learned from experience on the Mercy. First of all I’ve learned that I can sleep in small spaces amongst tons of girls, I LOVE mangos as long as they are not from the US, I know Spanish a ton more than I realized (after trying to understand Indonesian I was actually happy to hear Spanish again, who would have thought?), I do not get sea sick (yay), I can take 90 second showers and wash my hair (barely), I hate humidity and I think I set a personal record on how many days I have sweat strait, I finally found a place where I climbed more stairs a day since living south of campus at BYU, karaoke is so much cooler in foreign countries, I can see patients if necessary at a rapid speed, eels can be friendly (well at least to most people), camel is not my favorite type of meat, vitamins can treat just about anything, and yes I am still afraid of spiders. On a more deeper note there are a few thing I have gained that have had a little more of an impact on my life. Here are my top three:
1. Patience. From the moment I got on the ship I felt like it was ready set wait. We waited for instructions, we gather or “musters” at a certain time and then waited for an hour to actually leave. Also being on the sh
ip there was a lot of down time. Down time when in transit and down time when I wasn’t working in the medcaps. I felt like I spent most of my time waiting for the next meal or even days for something to happen. In addition, we had to live by a new set of rules, follow instructions from all sorts of different people and in a since live in a way that was entirely different than I was use to. Not that it was completely bad, it was just different. This taught me patience in a new way. It taught me to laugh at the silly completely annoying things I couldn’t control and to just relax and take things as they came both good and bad. It helped me learn to appreciate and hold onto the joys and excitements that happened along the way and how to endure through the frustrating sad parts of the journey. Although I feel it takes a life time and more to completely understand and gain patience, I am grateful for the level of it I learned during this adventure.
2. Do the best you can and leave the rest to the lord. During the project as you know I did the majority of my service in medical clinics. There I saw a large number of patience. Many were pretty healthy but some had major medical problems. Unfortunately, due to the limited medication options and the inability to do surgery because of the locations I was at, there was little I could do for some. There was one day that I came back form a clinic so extremely discourage because I was unable to help a number of patients who had severe medical problems that some would probably die from, and I wondered if it was even worth it? Was it even worth giving these people hope by coming and n
ot being able to do anything? Then as I was waiting on the pier for the boat back to the ship, I saw a large boat full of patients from ship and come onto the dock. All who just had life changing surgeries from hernia and cleft palate repairs to horrible fracture repairs. As I watched them it made me realize that although we cannot help everyone, we are doing our best and are changing the lives of some and that is what makes the difference. I then was able to focus on the patients I was able to help, the moms excited to get vitamins for their kids; the 14 year old girl wh
o hugged me and was excited that she was able to see an American doctor; my translator who brought me his mother, cousins, and neighbor to see; the mom who was overjoyed that her baby was normal and growing healthy after having lost one not so long ago; and the list goes one and on. I know that I wasn’t able to help everyone but I know that I did my best to be an instrument in the lord’s hands and that’s the best I can do. I think that’s the best we all can do and then we have to leave the rest to the lord. Even though so many people were not helped I am grateful for the reassuring knowledge and peace that the lords loves all his children and I know that through some other means he will take care of them.
3. Gratitude. I think the most important thing I learned on this trip is gratitude. For those of you who have spent time in third world countries I think you would understand that those people’s lives are necessarily the most easiest and that they live in very humble circumstances. One place I went the families were so poor it was hard to recommend anything to them because they couldn’t afford it. Many of the children 
had insect bites all over their legs but when you told their mother that they needed a new bed, insect spray, or new shoes she gave you that look like “I know I just can’t afford it“. Most all the people were very skinny, never had medical care, and their teeth were not so ideal. As I was listening to my Ipod one night a Disney song came on and it made me almost cry because I knew these children had never seen Disney movies, play wit
h barbies or cars, will ever go theme parks, or have anything like our children. Then I realized that although these people had absolutely nothing the were happy. The children happily played, the people laughed and were soo generous. Seeing all this really humbled me, and made me realize that I do not appreciate what I do have enough. I think sometimes we go through life complaining about the things or opportunities that we don’t have instead of focusing on what we do have and being grateful for it. I wonder if we did we‘d be happier. How lucky we are to live where we live and have what we have! I am soo grateful for that and feel so blessed. I am grateful for the amazing people I met on this ship and for the Navy and those men and women who were willing to dedicate their lives to serving our country.
What an experience it was and I am grateful for what I have learned and that I was able to share a little bit of it with you all :)
Here are some statistics of the Indonesia portion of Pacific Partnership 2010
Total patients seen ashore (including med/dental/opth): 33,158
Total surgeries: 214
Total dental procedures: 190
Vet care: 1034 animals treated
Education projects:
Medical 4260.5: hours, Vet: 383 hours, 392 HN, preventative med: 4836 hours
Engineering projects: Inpatient Ward at Daruba Hospital renovated, Negiri 1 and 2 schools refurbishe, Puskesmas Kalumang Clinic renovated, Puskesmas Sulamadaha Clinic renovated, Puskesmas Tulehu Clinic renovated
Michelle, I enjoyed catching up with you via the blog. It was a great pleasure to meet and associate with you. The Mercy adventure was incredible! Thanks for blogging the things you learned. Us too. Sometimes it seems others say it better than we could. We wish you the best in your new venture.
ReplyDeleteMike and Susan