El Salvador Mission Reflection before the trip….
August - September 2007

Dawn Sanders, Learning and Development, PeaceHealth - Oregon Region
 

Let's start with "why?" Why would an all-American girl, heartland, middle-class born and raised, seek to join a medical mission to El Salvador? To go to a place she's heard has poison water, poison mosquitoes, razor wire, armed guards, heat and dust and rain and injustice? To a place that calls for four immunizations and malaria pills prior to visiting?

Perspective! 

I suspect that living my entire life in this big ol' safe, cozy country where traffic is my biggest gripe, where I'm educated, air-conditioned, free to be opinionated and enjoy long hot showers daily, has skewed my perspective of the human condition on this planet. 

The seed to shift this tunnel-vision perspective was planted by my father more than a decade ago. I was living and working in Boston not long after college. I complained to my father that I was making only $18,000 a year and found it difficult to save any money for the things I wanted and "needed." His answer: "In many countries, you would be considered rich." 

Since then, it has been my conscious choice to remember how fortunate I, and the majority of U.S. citizens really are; to make a conscious choice not to fall prey to that American entitled perspective born of safety, comfort and leisure time enough to think up "problems" like flight delays and rising gas prices. 

So, what's the best way to get this perspective? To step out of my comfort zone; to reach out and physically and emotionally touch those who live in very different circumstances. I expect to find gratitude and a humbleness of spirit in the people of El Salvador. I offer them the small gesture of my time and attention in return for their gift to me of perspective. 

Please join me through my words and photos on this quest for true perspective.
 

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