Life Changing Experience
I personally chose to differentiate this page from my “Experience” page because this entails information on an experience in my life that deserves to be in a category all it’s own. This page is dedicated to my senior project that I completed the first week of December in 2008. Senior projects that most kids in my school completed involved community service within my hometown of Lebanon with organizations like Toys for Tots and other local organizations. I knew these types of projects were all great ways to give back to our community, but I wanted to do something more. I wanted to do something life changing. Luckily, I knew somebody who could help me accomplish that goal. I went to my personal eye doctor, Dr. Albert Alley who is in charge of the World Blindness Outreach Organization and he allowed me to go on one of his eye surgery missions.
After Thanksgiving, a group of volunteers including myself and my Dad, set out for Nagua of the Dominican Republic. Our mission was to perform as many successful cataract surgeries as we possibly could in three days with the limited amount of supplies we had. We arrived in Nagua and the conditions were worse than I envisioned them to be. The culture shock really set in when I realized I would be calling this third-world city home for the next few days. I took notice immediately to the extremely poor conditions people lived in. Most didn’t have running water, homes were made of whatever material was available to some people and it was not exactly the safest place in the world.
Our team set up the medical equipment for the eye surgeries in an old run-down hospital about a block from our hotel. The conditions in the hospital were absolutely terrible in comparison to the hospitals and medical buildings in the United States to the point where it would not meet any standard requirements. 
Every morning outside the building was a line of people who were waiting for us to arrive, some of which had been waiting before the sunrise. The waiting people came in all shapes, sizes and were as young as fourteen to as old as mid-80’s. Some of these people hadn’t been able to see for decades and had no proper means of ever having their sight fixed, until our team showed up. I learned as time went on that these people heard through the grapevine, churches or doctors that our team was coming, so they knew this was possibly their only chance to ever see again. So every morning there they sat as we approached the hospital, dedicated and determined to see the world once more.
Since I was obviously not a trained doctor, my main job for around ten hours a day was to help record patients medical information and help to obtain a brief scanning of the patients who were to have cataracts removed. Additionally, I did whatever I could to help out the team even if it was some little odd job that seemed insignificant. Though the days were long, the roughest part was that the lack of air conditioning in the hospital. We also only took one break per day for lunch at noon, so by the end of working double-digit hours I was incredibly exhausted. Aside from the long, hot days, another challenge was the language barrier we had with the patients, who only spoke Spanish. I knew some Spanish, but certainly not enough to have a whole conversation with one of the patients. Luckily, we had a translator on hand sent by a local organization, which was a huge help to me especially, because I had to screen every patient who was to have surgery. Though there was a language barrier, I could tell just by the way the people looked at me that they were grateful I was there and that was good enough for me.
Operating Room
When I had some spare time during the work day, I had the privilege of suiting up in medical scrubs so I could witness several surgical procedures. This was such an amazing experience because I had never witnessed a surgical procedure in person and I got to see firsthand how our teamwork payed off to give something back to those who were less fortunate than I. It was absolutely surreal to stand right next to somebody having their eye operated on and being able to watch up close. It’s definitely one of those things that words can only do so much justice to and you, yourself have to see to understand the magnitude.
Watching Surgery
After a patient would come out of surgery, he/she would be helped by one of us on the team with instructions on how to leave and what to do with the patch over their repaired eye. Each patient was told to return a day after surgery to have their patch removed and be examined one last time before they leave us with their new and improved vision. At this point, I didn’t know what to expect with these people. I didn’t know if they would even come back or what their reaction would be.
After three tough days of work, the mayor of Nagua had a dinner and ceremony for us in a town hall-like building. At the dinner, each member of our team received an individual award for his or her work, no matter what role he or she had on the team. When my name was called, I went up on stage and I received my award and it was extremely gratifying to have these people who didn’t even know I existed the week before, let alone could not even speak to me, sit there and clap for me the way they did.
The day we left was the one that I will always remember the most. We didn’t perform any surgeries on this day. We simply had the patients come back in to the hospital to be checked one last time and have their patches removed from their surgically repaired eye. We had the patents come into this very old, beat up recovery ward and the doctors made their rounds to each patient and began removing their patches. The patients sat in their seats and looked around the room, out the window, at each other and everywhere they possibly could. They could see!
Typical Work – Screening Patients
Everybody on the team went about their business and left the ward to start packing up when a translator came over to us and said the patients had something to say. We all went back into the room packed full of the patients and they began to cheer and thank us for what we had done. This was the moment. It was that moment that it hit me like a ton of bricks. I stood there in the doorway and I started to cry. This very moment was what this entire trip was about. It was that moment when I realized how much I helped to impact these people’s lives with something that we in America don’t think twice about. It truly was an amazing feeling to know that I contributed to changing lives by aiding in the process to return back the human gift of sight. This moment was even more rewarding to me than receiving that plaque the night before in front of a room full of people. The feeling of that moment still lives with me today and I will never forget how rewarding it felt.
That Moment
Well, this is my life changing experience. This is why I chose to create a completely separate page, because this experience is unique and truly did change my life. I can honestly say that ever since that mission trip, I look at life differently. Thinking about this trip every now and again reminds me not to take the simple things in life for granted; down to the simplest of things like clean running water and a solid roof over my head. It also make me more thankful for the country I live in, the family I have and the opportunities available to me. I couldn’t be happier to help out the World Blindness Outreach because of what it did for me in return. I also couldn’t be happier to help those Dominican people who I will never forget and will always be a part of me as they once said I would always be a part of them.
I definitely grew a lot from this amazing experience with my Dad by my side.
- Looking back on things now, I feel like my work with this organization is not by any means complete. I hope to go on more missions in the future to help impact more lives of those less fortunate than I. If I cannot attend medical missions due to my professional career, I certainly will donate part of my income to this amazing organization so the priceless impact on the lives people who are less fortunate across the globe can continue.