Volunteering Across the Border
Shurthi Sriram, MSII

Below is a relection I wrote about a very touching experience I had on a medical mission (HHAB) trip in Tijuana, Mexico (August 2005). As a volunteer, I usually translate for doctors to help with doctor-patient communication as well as observe patient-care. The experience described below was a somewhat different learning experience for me. It was so moving that I decided to write to my friends and family about it the very same day.

Today I translated for a pastor who was seeing people who wanted to pray. At registration, everyone was asked if they wanted to pray and whoever said yes could go to a little corner and talk to the pastor.

It was quite emotional and touching to hear about all the problems these people had and really felt depressed about. Women would come by and cry and talk about their problems. Many of them didn't have anyone else to talk to and I guess they just wanted someone to listen. A few of them were suicidal too. Their worries included their own health, loneliness, spouses/children across the border who don't visit them anymore, death of a parent/loved one, unfaithful spouses, etc. If you simply looked at them on the outside, you wouldn't think that they were so sad. It seems like they bottle it up for the most part, as there is really not much of a concept of 'mental health' resources there.

And then there was the married couple who just wanted to pray because they were so happy and grateful about something that happened the day before. There was apparently a big fire in the area where they lived so they had evacuated their home. Then they said they prayed like crazy for their house to be saved. It turned out their house was saved by just inches from the fire. So they were just so happy and thankful about that they wanted to pray and thank God.

The wife was saying how they moved from Chiapas [an agricultural area in southern Mexico] to Tijuana about 18 years ago and that she felt it was really 'bonito' here. At first, I wasn't sure if I heard right, as Tijuana is not exactly 'bonito' (which literally means 'pretty'). But I guess it can also mean 'nice'. And I guess she really felt like it was nice in Tijuana because she worked in a factory where she made more than twice as much (13 pesos/day instead of 5; conversion is about 1 dollar=10 pesos) as in the countryside in Chiapas . It's just amazing how relative everything is. Something that is utterly poor and deprived to us is nice and 'bonito' to others. She said the only reason they don't cross the border to earn in dollars is the danger of death involved.

So I guess my experience today was pretty intense and something different for me. It just made me see these people in a new light-- that they have the same worries/problems/mental health issues that we have and need to let it out. Although the pastor and I couldn't really do much about anything, I hope it was helpful to just listen.