What does being a global health intern entail here in
Mexico? For this project you need a whole lot of creativity, heat tolerance,
and a generous amount of patience. For me, being a global health intern here in
Merida Mexico has been a different experience than I had imagined. To be
perfectly honestly, I’m not sure what I exactly had pictured, and still I feel
perplexed by the diversity of the challenges and opportunities that I have
faced thus far. I had always pictured an internship to have a decent amount of structure,
maybe a list of responsibilities that need to be accomplished, or possibly a
great and obvious need for some sort of individual help. Working here every day
has had quite the opposite impression on me, these people are amazing, and I
find myself asking myself what it is I’m supposed to do on a day to day basis
to effectively help them. A day in the life of a global health intern here has involved
a lot of searching for how I can implement my skills and how I can assist these
people in a sustainable manner. I often feel these people are smarter
and more capable than I am, but from their humility have made me feel so loved
and needed.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Taylor Smith’s new album, but
she accompanies me in waking up every morning around 6:40am from a roommate’s
cell exclaiming that she would never trust a narcissist, but they love her. What a
way to start every morning right? A different mood than I’m used to but
nonetheless a medium of waking up. We quickly get ready and head to breakfast
which usually consists of eggs, pancakes, or my personal favorite, arepas. Julieta or Guadalupe cooks our meals and
always welcomes the hot morning with an effortless “Buenos dias!”. By 7:15 we
are stepping out on the busy 62nd street being welcomed by the smell
of humidity and dense city air. Not my favorite smell, but accompanied by good memories
of Uruguay and Brazil, so I quietly enjoy.
From pure good fortune we make it to our bus stop by 7:45 before
the sun peaks over the building, but don’t be fooled, the heat is still prevalent.
The kids start arriving around 8am with their smiley faces and poorly spoken “Good
Mornings!”. Enough to melt my heart nonetheless. We teach five, forty-five-minute
classes a day from kids ranging from 6-13 years old. The classes we teach
consist of a solid English topic accompanied by at least one public health issue
with an activity to finish. I work with Nathaly Vasquez and It brings
so much joy knowing we share all our Miraflores adventure together.
The project site we work at is very small. It consists of a
small kitchen, a back-patio area for the dance classes, a small library the size
of my living room, and one small side room the size of my kitchen. We teach in
the small side room without any chairs, desks, or paper and pencils. It is so
hard to keep the kids focused with no air conditioning and the noise from all
the other classes around us. It is so temping for them to just lay down and
stop paying attention, and to be quite honest, it is even a temptation for me.
I have so much fun teaching them and getting to know them
every day. These Mexican children have so much personality, spunk, and drive
for life. At home, my mother is a kindergarten teach and I often stopped in throughout
the year to volunteer in her class. I got to know the kids personally and loved
them more than I thought I would! Surprisingly enough, far away from a
classroom in Centerville Utah, I experience some of the same exact problems,
successes, and feeling as I did in that classroom. We dance to the same
music, they laugh at my same jokes, and respond to the same attention getters. Kids
are kids anywhere in the world. My heart aches for the prejudices of the world and
the problems seen in the news every day. The people here are different than us
in appearance but the same in heart. They have the same humanistic worries,
desires, and strive to do the best they can every day. I often wonder why that
is not unifying enough. After we finish
our last class we start our journey home to eat lunch with all the other
volunteers and plan as to how we will survive the upcoming heatwave of the
afternoon. Happy days here in Merida indeed.
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Querida Jenna, antes que nada le felicito por estos posts que cuentan de su experiencia en la ciudad de Mérida, son muy interesantes e ilustrativos, también por estar haciendo esta labor tan especial entre mi gente, aun cuando el calor y la humedad son realmente difíciles de soportar en esa región, yo soy un miembro de la Iglesia de Chihuahua México y tuve el privilegio de servir en la misión México Mérida, es por eso que se de lo que esta hablando cuando se refiere al clima de ahí, también le comento que conozco a Nathaly Vasques ya que ella sirvió su misión aquí en Chihuahua y tuve el honor de conocerla y convivir con ella, una excelente misionera y excelente joven a quien le tengo un enorme cariño. Quiero agradecerles a todos ustedes por la gran labor que hacen en los países latinos a los que acuden y que sirven con gran amor, especialmente agradezco lo que han hecho en Mérida, ese lugar al que yo amo, por dar a los niños y jóvenes enseñanzas que les ayudaran toda la vida y por ayudarles a confiar y saber que tienen un futuro brillante en sus vidas, por ser un ejemplo a los adultos con los que conviven y un ejemplo para todos nosotros que leemos y conocemos de su labor, les admiro por su esfuerzo y gran animo a pesar de sufrir adversidades, pero yo se que el Señor les protege y les bendice grandemente por servir a sus hermanos e hijos de Nuestro Padre Celestial. Solo quiero terminar diciéndoles GRACIAS!!!
ReplyDeleteMi nombre es Ramón Hernandez de Cauhtemoc Chihuahua!!
ReplyDelete