Translated by Jennifer Yap Chng Yung

 

       I was once hesitated to join the Belize’s mission as my wife is pregnant at the moment but I returned home with all the precious memories and experiences. I have an opportunity to understand the ancient Mayan’s monuments and experience the gap between rich and poor. And yet I am well aware about the team spirit and cooperation, and finally understand about the difference between developed countries and underdeveloped countries. I am really glad that Taiwan is a country that is rich with resources compare with the third world. Surprisingly, we met the Belize’s first lady too.

 

Back to the moment when I first received the notification of the mission, I did not sign up immediately as my wife is pregnant. However, no one register for the mission after two weeks, thus I have a long discussion with my wife. After having her agreement I passed my registration to the director of department, Dr. Yan-QingYu. My colleague that used to join the TRMPC’s mission remind me that a dentist usually doing extraction only during the mission. However, we need to install and uninstall the dental unit by our own. I was highly in doubt as this supposed to be the assistant’s work, isn’t it?

 

I explored the internet about Belize before departure. Surprisingly, I notice that it was actually a famous tourist attraction especially it’s diving facilities, but nothing much concern about Guatemala. They are identical as both are Taiwan’s diplomatic partners. Finally, when it is time to depart, I notice that I was the only volunteer from the Southern part of Taiwan, so I take the High Speed Railway from Tainan to TaoYuan International Airport to gather with other volunteers.

    At the airport, “Mr. Kentucky” finally noticed me and said, “Are you Dr. Mao? Put your luggage aside please, and take a rest. There are still others coming around in short while.” Then, I figure out that Mr. Kentucky is actually Dr. Liu-QiQun, the President of TRMPC. He informed me that there are only 14 volunteers for this mission, including himself, 1 obstetrician, 2 ophthalmologists, 3 dentists, 1 pharmacist, 1 medical technologists, 4 nurses and 1 volunteer.

 

Everyone arrived after a while, and we started to move the luggage for the mission. Oh my god, there are totally 28 boxes of medical equipment! I’m highly in doubt, are we going to battlefield instead of medical mission?

 

   The flights took ten hours before arriving in Los Angeles. Most of the volunteers are allowed to pass through the custom smoothly, but I’m the only who left behind. Perhaps because I am the only one holding Islamic country’s passport (I hold Malaysia’s passport). Allowed me to complain as the Americans are doing their job inefficiently, they made me wait for 2 hours before allowing me to entry US and yet I have rush to catch the transfer flight to Dallas then to Belize.

 

Once I left the aircraft, I finally notice that Belize is really similar with Malaysia. The Belize Ambassador’s secretary sent us to the hotel. We’re invited to join the dinner at the ambassador’s house in the evening. Surprisingly, the dinner was really delicious and it contains unlimited grilled lobster, roasted chicken and wine.

 

The first day mission was located in a small hospital, according to rumors there are only medical equipment but no physician at all. Luckily, my partner Dr. Shi-ShuHua that used to join TRMPC’s mission guide me the way to install the dental unit and compressor. The President reminded that we must emphasize on infection control and assumed that every patient is HIV carrier to protect ourselves. Thus, we wore isolation clothes all the time, but we had a big trouble about the mask as there were only 2 disposable masks around but we have to use it throughout our mission. I felt I’m in a danger suddenly. However, the only thing we can do is to be more careful during our treatment in case to protect ourselves. Thus, we can only offer extraction and caries restoration treatment.

 

For some in-cooperate children, or patients requiring scaling service, we can only reject them. In Belize, we have no problem facing patients that can communicate in English. For those who can only communicate in Spanish, we can only to rely on the interpreter to communicate with each other. After we finished mission of the day, the Taiwanese businessman treated us a luxurious dinner.

 

Our mission was held in a school that located in urban district on the next and the following day. All of us agreed to meet at 5 am to visit the legendary Caribbean Sea before departure. We saw a lot of luxurious bungalow around, and yet each of them has a private yacht beside the house. We walked to the beach and just in time to see the sunrise, and it is really beautiful.

We arrived at the school in the morning. The Belize’s First Lady and the local dentist were around to concern about our mission. The local children seemed to have a slight tendency of growth retardation as they need their teachers to assist them all the way. At night when we returned to our hotel, the owner of the hotel (which is origin from Taiwan) treated us to a meal that contains lobster, drumstick and of course the local beer BELIKIN, which in my opinion, taste better than the Taiwan’s beer.

 

The 4^th day was the last day for our mission in Belize. The mission was held in a local school too. We’re still using the same disposable mask as this is all we have. Honestly, we felt so disgusting but no second choice for us, thus we can only use alcohol gauzes to wipe it again and again as sterilization method. Perhaps because we’re too busy and too tired and yet reluctant to leave Belize so soon, thus we tend to offer more service for the local citizens, and we did not put much attention on the disgusting mask. In the evening, the Ambassador invited us to a Chinese restaurant for dinner as our farewell ceremony.

 

  We left Belize the next day and continued our journey to Guatemala. An arrangement to visit the Mayan monuments was made during our journey to Guatemala. I’ve no idea is it because we were working day and night until we have no time to travel around everyone was so excited when we arrived at the Mayan’s monuments. All of us, including the president which has worst vigor, rush through the monuments and climbed to the top of the tower once we arrived at the monuments. This might be the greatest experience we gained in this mission.

 

Both of the ambassadors completed the handing-over ceremony when we arrived at Belize and Guatemala’s border. We travelled to our destination under the police’s escort. We have our lunch in a small town, and there were security guards holding gun standing in front of every entrance of the store. Ambassador Sun Ta-Cheng told us that the public security in Guatemala is very poor, robbery might happened everywhere and anytime, thus the local rich people build walls around their house and use helicopters as their vehicle because the fear of being robbed. At night, we stayed in a luxurious guest house that operated by orphanage house.

We started our medical mission in Guatemala the next day and it lasted for four days. The most popular language in Guatemala is Spanish, thus the ambassador had arranged seven interpreters to help us in translation and communication. This  situation had slow down our service. The local staple food is corn and we had been served Tortilla in every meal. At last, no one is interested in eating Tortilla. The service we offer in Guatemala is similar with those in Belize, and of course we’re still using the disgusting masks.

 

Time goes by and our mission had come to an end. We lived in a five-star hotel for the last two days. The Ambassadors made an arrangement for us to visit the Spanish style’s convent, coffee plantation and shopping around. He invited us to dinner at his house to bid farewell at last.

 

Finally, it’s time to bid farewell. An arrangement of special customs clearance was made at the airport and that saved a lot of time. However, I’m still facing the same situation as I used to be when I arrived in United States. Luckily, the Taiwanese officers help me with the deal or else I might miss my flight.

Finally, special thanks to the hospital and TRMPC for offering this opportunity for me to take part in this mission. I gained a lot of precious experience along my journey. For those medical staffs that are interesting in joining us, I encourage you to take part as you might gain wonderful experience through this activity. However, for those who can never tolerant or sufferings with hard and tired work, perhaps you should consider it carefully, as participating in medical mission is actually a team work that need fully cooperation from all of the volunteers.