In short, I'm just at peace. There's something oddly homey about Huancayo, and Peru in general. Granted, there are somethings here that are not quite the same as home. Whether it's the presence of rice at every meal, the altitude that makes you weeze after scaling three consecutive flights of stairs, doing laundry a fresco by hand (yeah, Al, I hand washed my laundry today on the roof, be jealous), or the phantom presence of toilet paper (many places in Peru don't have toilet paper in the first place, and if you chose to use it, then you have to throw it out in a trash can next to the toilet since the plumbing system can't handle it, this is common in many Latin American countries), it's definitely not the States. However, (sorry fam) I'm not homesick. At first I thought it was because I'm not the "homesick type," but the last couple days have made it very clear that there is something much deeper drawing me to love Peru and what we're doing here.
I mentioned earlier that I'm no longer an aspiring doctor, and that was a really difficult realization to come to. For those of you who didn't know, I truly felt called to do medical mission work in Latin America. At first, I was so against it... I mean I always said I never wanted to be a doctor (I know, I know, just like I always said I would never go to Bucknell). But soon it became clear to me that the plan God had for me included that field. Everything was going smoothly until the middle/end of first semester of my sophomore year. I put so much stress and pressure on myself and I didn't like who I was becoming, or rather how I was fading. Whether I liked it or not, I made my future career too much of my identity, and my true self was just a faded image of what I was truly designed to be. After barely swallowing the notion that medicine could not be the right career path for me, I freaked out. Luckily I had amazing family and friends there to deal with me and sort it all out. Before I knew it, God comforted me and pointed me in the right direction, the same direction as before, but an alternate route. The whole reason I liked medicine in the first place was the idea of helping those who did not have access to adequate health care or health education. The field of public health hit me like a freight train and has been something I've seriously been considering ever since.
After arriving in Peru, some things have become blatantly clear. While I love the hospital and some of the doctors I have the privilege of shadowing, the white coat is NOT for me. The first day when they gave it to us, I put it on and immediately wanted to rip it off. Honestly, it felt sort of like kryptonite to me. Here was this crowning achievement, the white coat, that I had put on this pedestal for so long and here it was taunting me. I was nervous that I would succumb to the siren song of the coat, but it has no effect on me. Now after spending two weeks going to El Rosario Orphanage, psych wards, pediatric inpatient clinics, rural schools, the special needs school and the HIV shelter it is safe to say, I love people that are ostracized by society. The fact that I get to teach orphans about proper hygiene or help them with their english homework, do origami with schizophrenics, console parents of chronically ill children, color princess pictures with kids infected with HIV, give fluoride treatments to elementary schoolers and do traditional peruvian dances with students at an impoverished rural school is what gets me out of bed in the morning. I know, it sounds like a really bad joke, but that's my life here in Huancayo and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17
We are called to the widows and the orphans, but it's easy to ignore their silent cries. Oh, but every single time someone reaches out into the darkness, makes a choice to help the helpless, they let mercy save a life. (...) So let worlds collide and colors fade. Let your life, be the miracle today. "One Less" by Matthew West
I mentioned earlier that I'm no longer an aspiring doctor, and that was a really difficult realization to come to. For those of you who didn't know, I truly felt called to do medical mission work in Latin America. At first, I was so against it... I mean I always said I never wanted to be a doctor (I know, I know, just like I always said I would never go to Bucknell). But soon it became clear to me that the plan God had for me included that field. Everything was going smoothly until the middle/end of first semester of my sophomore year. I put so much stress and pressure on myself and I didn't like who I was becoming, or rather how I was fading. Whether I liked it or not, I made my future career too much of my identity, and my true self was just a faded image of what I was truly designed to be. After barely swallowing the notion that medicine could not be the right career path for me, I freaked out. Luckily I had amazing family and friends there to deal with me and sort it all out. Before I knew it, God comforted me and pointed me in the right direction, the same direction as before, but an alternate route. The whole reason I liked medicine in the first place was the idea of helping those who did not have access to adequate health care or health education. The field of public health hit me like a freight train and has been something I've seriously been considering ever since.
After arriving in Peru, some things have become blatantly clear. While I love the hospital and some of the doctors I have the privilege of shadowing, the white coat is NOT for me. The first day when they gave it to us, I put it on and immediately wanted to rip it off. Honestly, it felt sort of like kryptonite to me. Here was this crowning achievement, the white coat, that I had put on this pedestal for so long and here it was taunting me. I was nervous that I would succumb to the siren song of the coat, but it has no effect on me. Now after spending two weeks going to El Rosario Orphanage, psych wards, pediatric inpatient clinics, rural schools, the special needs school and the HIV shelter it is safe to say, I love people that are ostracized by society. The fact that I get to teach orphans about proper hygiene or help them with their english homework, do origami with schizophrenics, console parents of chronically ill children, color princess pictures with kids infected with HIV, give fluoride treatments to elementary schoolers and do traditional peruvian dances with students at an impoverished rural school is what gets me out of bed in the morning. I know, it sounds like a really bad joke, but that's my life here in Huancayo and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17
We are called to the widows and the orphans, but it's easy to ignore their silent cries. Oh, but every single time someone reaches out into the darkness, makes a choice to help the helpless, they let mercy save a life. (...) So let worlds collide and colors fade. Let your life, be the miracle today. "One Less" by Matthew West
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