reflections of hope: medical camp

One thing that is extremely awesome about the church I have been attending here is how involved it is in the community. They always make announcements on Sundays about various opportunities they have to participate in different kinds of service work in this city, but it has been seldom that I have done any of it. My friend Joe was telling me about the medical camps that a girl at our church has initiated in a remote village on Saturdays, and we decided to go this week.

Remote. I have been to tons of villages, and a couple even hours away, but nothing as remote as this one. We all met up at 6:30 a.m., drove for 2 hours close to the border of Bangladesh and then took a boat and a motorcycle-type thing to get there. I love getting out of the city sometimes because the scenery is gorgeous. Everything is so green and I always feel like I am on a jungle safari. The air is also a lot cleaner.

Sometimes here I can get pretty lonely, or homesick, or too self-focused when I think about everything / everyone I have at home and how far away I am. And other times it hits me like a ton of bricks how lucky I am to be here. How much I hoped and prayed for this internship and how cool it is to be riding around the in villages of India going to help people get medical care who have no doctors in their area whatsoever. How much I wanted to be working in the front lines of human trafficking and how I am here now.

That being said, today was one of those days where I was struck by how much I love it here. We left early and arrived at the school where the clinic would take place at about 9 a.m. I think 34 new patients came today, above and beyond the people who were following up from last time. It was a lot of women. My job was easy- just height and weight measurement and playing with the kids. I was struck with how important it is for Christians to help meet the basic needs of other humans- and how great is is that Sarah has made it her life mission to ensure that these village people are healthy and have access to medical care.

As I was working in this dilapidated school in the middle of nowhere in rural India, I kept thinking about how beautifully and wonderfully God has made his creation. The doctor we brought was able to sit with each patient and help prescribe medicines for various aches and pains. A few previous patients were back and were doing drastically better simply because they were able to receive medicine. Everyone was excited to be there. When we left, I was exhausted but in a good way. Here are some photos to document the day!

Boat ride #1