And the fox said to the little prince, “One sees only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes”.
To travel and to be a humanitarian takes perseverance. For every one person who supports my travels to Honduras, there are 12 people who don’t understand, 20 people who think I am crazy and 2 or 3 people who simply don’t care. These scenarios are the reasons why it is of the utmost importance to me that supporters and non-supporters alike can see Honduras with their hearts. Pictures may capture moments, but traveling captures experience and humanitarianism garners wisdom. I want everyobody to be able to see the clouds descend upon the earth while houses remain lit above them- a kingdom in the clouds. I want everyone to be able to get a hug from an extremely grateful Honduran woman whom you have just given medicine to. Most importantly, I want people to see a place where all five senses are used. Many people sleepwalk through their entire lives and never experience a thing. The Global Medical Brigades (GMB) woke me up to a world I would have never seen had I not decided to come to Honduras.
At 20 years old and about to graduate from college, I constantly wonder if anything I do will really matter. Will I ever make my footprint in something… GMB showed me that what I do does matter. It matters to every person I interview in triage, every person I count “uno, dos, tres” to as I take their blood sugar, and every person who patiently waits for an hour for medications at our pharmacy. It is a wonderful feeling to know that you matter to someone and that you will not always be one in the masses. It takes courage to do humanitarian work in a country with a different culture and belief system not to mention a different language. However, I am doing something that I love even if I am one of the few natural blonde in Honduras. It is so serene to count pills continuously to the point that I have so much residue on my hands I could probably cure an entire village by simply touching them.
Experiences like GMB have to be experienced, and I hope and wait for the day that Honduras is no longer invisible.
