NC State University

by senior Christina Cox

It definitely happened again today. I was walking through the dirt in the patey of Los Aguas and an older gentleman looked at my nametag and called my name. “Christina,” he called across the lawn as he motioned for me to come over. As he attempted to speak to me, I pieced together with my limited knowledge of Spanish that he thought that I was a native of the Dominican Republic. My basic background in the Spanish language served as a barrier to our conversation. I wanted so badly to explain to him that there are many people in ‘Estados Unidos,’ who look like both of us. How selfish have I been? How selfish have I been to think that just because I speak English the rest of the world should too? The people of the Dominican Republic have so very little in terms of money and educational opportunities, but almost everyone here knows at least a little bit of English and many are conversational. Serving in the Dominican Republic during this past week has definitely opened my eyes to the rest of the world, and language is only one aspect of the ways in which my eyes have been opened.

I have been given so many unique opportunities as part of the health team for ASB. I have had the opportunity to travel all over the region of Monte Cristi taking nutritional information as well as women’s health information to the people of several underserved populations. It is a certainty that people have had the opportunity to learn from both my team members and myself, but we have also learned from them. At each community that we traveled to, we had the opportunity to learn what it means to make someone feel at home in any condition, how to truly show respect for another and how to serve someone without making them feel like your inferior.

In the country of the Dominican Republic, I have found my model for a medical servant in Dr. Garcia. He has committed his time to the local hospital, the rehabilitation center and to a health promotions team that is operated through the banana cooperative, BANELINO. As much as he has stretched himself across all of Monte Cristi, he is somehow known as a friend and confidante everywhere he goes, and his work is physically visible in the facilities he has had a hand in creating and the vaccination of more than 96% of children in a poverty-stricken nation.

These seemingly magical powers come from his ability to not only help the people he works with, but to serve them. As he serves, he commits over and above the amount of hours he is paid for as a physician in the Dominican Republic because he has a heart for the people. This is the kind of servant I aspire to be. These are the reasons that let me know that the medical profession is the only profession for me. I am so incredibly grateful that words cannot describe all that I have taken from these beautiful people as I have attempted to pour into their lives. To encompass my gratitude in words is impossible. At the conclusion of this trip I am left thinking that I cannot wait to return to this country as a physician. There is so much more for me to learn and I have so much more to give. Viva Republica Dominicana!