Over the summer of my tenth grade year I received the opportunity to go and help teach Vacation Bible School in Aruba. At first going into this trip I was ecstatic to have the ability to work with a group of Christians from another country and teach, The one event I didn’t expect was to arrive and be greeted by an unusually small group of Christians and be introduced to an exaggeratingly large group of non-believers, My first day teaching was not only a lesson to the kids at VBS, but also to me, I had to alter the plans and figure out a different way to teach the material, After the first day I was more content with having to explain everything in a different way and or give background information to help fill in the blanks. Not only did I have to jump a religion barrier, but also a language barrier. I had always been used to teaching VBS in English, but in Aruba the local people mostly speak Papiamento.
A mixture of Dutch, French, and Spanish. At the time I had just finished my second year of Spanish at my high school, sol was able to pick up bits and pieces of what they were saying. Most of the time I had a translator that would repeat everything that I would say and make sure the kids grasped the concepts. By the fourth day I was able to speak a good amount of Papiamento, and could converse with the kids a little more. One of the high points of my trip that was not a part of teaching, were the occasions that we had to go into the communities and help the poverty-stricken individuals. My focus in life has always been on having a career in the medical field, I just never knew how I was going to achieve that.
My mother began as an RN in the ICU, and was there for thirty years. Over the years from hearing stories from my mother I decided that that was not the way to go for me. When I got back from my mission trip I looked into medicine in other countries I have been able to realize that I don‘t want to work in an American hospital, but in a foreign hospital. A challenge that comes with that is that other countries are sometimes not as medically developed as the United States. With the opportunities that I have had to be able to travel has shown me that I want to be an RN with the International Mission Board Working with that company also gives me the chance to work alongside missionaries out in the field day in and day out.
Along with that I get to not only help people physically, but spiritually alsoi With being 3 RN I will be able to go to countries where practicing Christianity is not an option for some or even a thought for others The one lesson that I learned most on my mission trip to Aruba was that I love caring for people with medical needs in other countries. Also that my love of the medical field can be combined with my love of traveling and caring for others, and that is my biggest accomplishment in my heart, but it is yet to be outdone.
