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Due to my own chaotic travel plans, I arrived at the Vancouver airport from Calgary, nearly 10 hours before the rest of the team, due to some family obligations I needed to fulfill at the end of my trip. Having sent emails back and forth to Dr. Roma-March, I was sure by now, she was annoyed with my own forging of travel plans, and my dozens of emails in prior weeks. However, the first face-to-face interaction I had from Dr. Marina Roma-March was a genuine hug. It made me feel welcome, a part of a team, and later, enabled me to spend 5 hours at the outdoor pickup terminal excitedly waiting to meet the rest of the TWECS Olongapo Team.
I remember distinctly the first thing I heard when I saw the enormous TWECS box-filled-dollies. "Look! Her boxes look like ours!" I felt out of place, having missed the first 12 hours of bonding, but realized moments later, during photographs and the later bus trip, that everyone was as welcoming as Marina.
When we arrived in Olongapo, with some brief history lessons from our tour guides and my teammates, I could see that this city needed our help. Our first tour of the Aita community, in the Iram Resettlement Area humbled me, and their living conditions saddened me. The Aita, however, continually smiling, playing, and dancing, did not let their living conditions affect their happiness, profoundly changing my outlook of third world cultures.
During our first clinic day at the Iram Resettlement, in full escort of the SWAT team, I was ready to work. As our first patients arrived in dispensing, I remember putting all my worries and nervousness away, and worked. I was surprised to see all the equipment we brought along with us, and only truly missed one tool from a modern lab, the edger. It was remarkable to see the staff utilize and adapt to the space so quickly. I learned from them, and did my best that day. In realizing this, the day flew by, and before we knew it, we had gotten through our first day with big smiles, happy patients, and a day's worth of good work.
Subsequent days in the Rizal triangle were progressively more organized, and our small team saw more and more people each day. I was glad that we worked to our highest capacities. It is why we had all made the long trip to the Philippines: to help as many people as we could.
My only disappointment was to see the countless patients with cataracts leave our clinic without any correction, or only seeing marginally better. With the handful of cataract surgeries that the hospital managed to arrange, we were unable to help the many cataracts, from the young to the elderly, which lined up within the early hours of the morning to see the team. In dispensing one post-cataract patient, I nearly broke into tears, as I fit his reading glasses and told the gentleman how lucky he was.
As we neared the end of our stay, our little team was, indeed transformed into a family of members (translators, volunteer nurses, hosts, guards, included) that each played a role in our tremendous success in Olongapo. I learned so much in two weeks. From words of wisdom ("Are you drinking your water?") to tidbits about the optical business, I am absolutely sure that I learned at least one thing that I'll never forget, from each and every TWECS team member.
As for our fearless leader, Dr. Marina Roma-March, I commend her. What she has achieved, through her multiple projects alike, is nothing short of amazing. Her sheer will and determination to provide aid to our patients compels me to re-examine myself, and pushed me to work harder for our cause throughout the project.
I am very proud, with the help of the TWECS Olongapo team, to have crossed the line of wanting to make a difference, to actually making a difference.
With greatest respect and thanks,
Wendy
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