From the moment I signed up to come and serve in Jamaica, I had the expectation that it would be an incredibly rich experience for me as a person and as a pediatrician. The feeling of being in a different setting and having different resources is an awareness of what we daily take for granted. You come to learn that even though you are here to help, the experience helps you even more. Here you come to rely in what you have learned and not who you can consult. The contrast of having specialists, to you being the only one the patient can see is an awakening experience. It makes you want to be an even better physician. It’s incredibly gratifying to feel that you are useful and necessary, that our profession is even better than what we thought. To see the happy and grateful faces of the children and parents is priceless. To learn more about how different we can be when we grow up in a different country but at the same time that the values of love, gratitude, kindness, joy don’t change, makes you realize that we are more similar than what we think. I’m humbled by all that Issa trust has done and keeps doing for Jamaica, because many people are blessed but very few give back. I hope that what I have seen and experienced reminds me every day to never stop giving back. I can never pay back all that this rotation has done for me but I can keep on putting my grain of help. 
Connect With Us