Jolleli S. Garcia

Jason Ellis

English

October 5, 2015

Honduras 2015

                 My name is Jolleli Sarai Garcia but everyone calls me Sara. I come from Los Angeles, California but I was raised in Brooklyn, New York. I am liberal arts student at City Tech.  In addition to my studies I am interested in politics, religion and reading about world issues, but my passion in helping others and providing support to their lives. In this personal essay I will explain how I came to be this way as a result of a very influential experience I had in Honduras. In the summer of 2015 I volunteered to go to Honduras for a week  with a  non profit organization called Hearts united foundation.We all go through experiences that can transform the way you live. Out of the 52 weeks in the year of 2015 I spent one week in Honduras. The trip to Honduras was not any ordinary trip, it was a humanitarian aid trip where medical help was provided, clothes were given out, food was given. Throughout my essay I am going to focus in three main things, I’m going to tell a few life stories that changed me, the work I did, and how I’m planning to use this experience for my future career.

            Honduras is the second poorest countries in Central America. During this humanitarian aid trip I met hundreds of people in extreme need.  They were in need of things like water, safe shelter, medical help and food, simple things we take for granted everyday. I went to three different parts of Honduras, the first day we went to El Porvenir, Honduras. We were in a small village called “El Terrero.” As we set the small clinic, and the place we set the small clinic, and the place where the clothes was going to be distributed. Around 50 people were lined up desperately wanting to see the doctor. I began to take names and calling them in. Each person had a special story. However, there was a young woman whom her  baby was 11 months but looked like he was a newborn child. The boy was born premature, he did could not grow because he did not have enough nutrients in him. The mother with tears in her eyes told us she was not able to afford the milk the child needed. She said she would need around $40.usd  month for her to buy the special milk her child needed. The doctor told us that if she could not get the milk her child would die in less than 6 months. We immediately made her a special case and thankfully we have been able to offer the milk. The next day we want to Talanga, Honduras “ casillas.” As we did the day before we set the areas so we can all work in our designated area. We were set to leave at 4pm it was 3:30 and there were two teen girls who were waiting and afraid they were not going to be able to see the doctor. I  went over to them to ask them their symptoms. The girl in the blue began to say she had a pain in her uterus she told me she fell while she was pregnant and had a miscarriage. She said the baby came out completely but she did not get to the hospital because she could not afford the transportation. I was able to get her in to see the doctor. I then asked the other young teen with the bright brown eyes what was wrong, her eyes began to fill up with tears, you were able to see the sadness in her eyes as she began to tell me she has had two miscarriages. She told me her first miscarriage was early in the pregnancy. During her second pregnancy she was able to reach 3 months, but one day as she walked home from getting water, she began to bleed and later in the night she had lost her child, she claims the child came out incomplete. The young girl believes some parts of the child are still in her. I promised her I would do my best to get her in. I was moved by her story I began to talk to ask her more questions. She began to to tell me she has a boyfriend who she lives with. Her boyfriends is pressuring her to have his child. She was desperate to know if she could have a baby. If she didn’t get pregnant soon her boyfriend would leave her. I can’t forget the look in her eyes. Likewise the next day we went to Danli, Honduras, “Los Higueros Colorados.” This was one of the poorest place I’ve ever been to. This place was stuck in between a developing community, which means the city above them have working toilets and running water. The water flushed went down a drain to the local river water, and the river water went into the people’s water wells. Without knowing people fetch this water and use it to drink, cook and shower. There was a lad there who greeted us with pleasure and then asked us if we could see her child who suffered from epilepsy attacks. During her consultation we noticed her eye was swollen and bright red with tears streaming down, she told us the smoke irritated her eyes. The doctor told her she needed a surgery or she would lose that eye.  She began to cry and told her son to leave the consultation area. With tearful eyes she began to tell us she could not afford the surgery because all the money she makes she saves up to go see her children whom the government took away from her. We asked why the government took her children away she began to cry and said she let her drug addict sister stay over one night and that by the morning her sister had killed her 2 month old daughter. She called the local police they came and took her sister and all her kids. When she went to court they told her she was an unfit mother and that she put her kids at risk by letting her sister in the house, they took her 4 kids away and told her she could come visit them in the institution but until they were 18 the government would have them. She begged us not to add more to her burden she had already lost all her kids, she had a son who had epilepsy. The doctor told her that she would give her special eye drops but she had to cover that eye when she cooked. She promised she would. The last place we went to was also a poor community, it was at the tip of a mountain. This was in Reitoca, Honduras “Cerro del Senor” over there the people were very humble, I was not able to talk to anyone because we very busy. However, I did meet a women with 5 children who my dad helped build her a home. She recently had a baby boy and when I asked her for the child’s name she had not chosen a name for her son. She then told me I could name her child. One of the helpers and I argued for 10 minutes trying to figure out a name, we finally decided to name the child “Jonas Marel” I was so honored to have had named the child, I am hoping to sponsor this child so he can have the best education. Until this day I can’t forget their stories or faces. Their stories changed me I am not the same person anymore I appreciate everything I have, I learned to value things I took for granted. I am forever thankful for this experience.

                   When I first went to Honduras I volunteered to work with children. When we got to the place I change my mind. I wanted to be in the medical field, I wanted to be where all the action once. I started working in that field and I loved it. It was three of us working with the medicine, the doctor prescribed them and we had to look for the pills and give the medicine to the patient. People thought it was easy but it was not, we woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning and work all day when we got home we organize the medicine from the afternoon making sure we had brought everything and then we packed the medicine for the next day. By the time we went it was around 1 o’clock in the morning. There were nights where I would lay on the floor while organizing the medicine and go to fall asleep. I liked the work and enjoyed working with the medicine but I just knew that I did not want to pursue this type of career.

                 I have always known that I wanted to help people. I always knew I wanted to give back. At first I was stuck in between two careers. I was stuck in between being a teacher for being a pediatrician. Through the humanitarian aid work trip I learned becoming a doctor was not something I’d look forward to do. I learned that I’d like to help and if I ever became a doctor I would not have the time to help in the way I wanted. Although I enjoyed distributing the medicine and learning the names of the medicine and learning what they were used for. I learned that I would want to go every summer and hope the medicine but being a teacher back home. My goal now is to pursue my teaching career and go every summer vacation to Honduras or whatever part of the world the organization takes us,  I will always help in the medical field in a way I would have best of both worlds.

               As stated before my plans are to pursue a teaching career here in the United States and go every summer to a different country with hearts united foundation. Through this organization we will continue to provide health care, clothes and food to people in different communities of Central America. As heart united foundation blooms we are hoping to expand to different parts of the world. We are hoping more people will join and help this noble non profit organization. I will forever cherish this experience, I am thankful for all the people I met and I am thankful for everything I learned. I learned to appreciate things I took for granted. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for me.