The Return Home… Reflections of a November Mission Team Member

Here is another reflection piece by one of our November mission team members, Nushin Alloo. Thank you Nushin for sharing!

Returning from Jordan has been a difficult experience. Trying to make sense of the sights, sounds, smells, voices, stories…all of it has blurred together in a surreal experience. How does one adjust back to the “real world” after such a journey?  Unlike the many medical professionals I served with, I have come back to a corporate job where, let’s be honest, I don’t necessarily change anyone’s life for the better on a day to day basis…minus a few corporate shareholders.

So many faces and stories touched our lives, not only of the displaced refugees we met, but of those incredible people that volunteered their time, money, and spirits to help strangers in need in a far off land. For the first time in months, a part of my faith in humanity was restored – seeing such integrity, selflessness, and desire to make a difference. There is “good” left in this world – that is what I discovered on this latest journey to the border towns Jordan. Amidst the bloodshed, pointless wars, sectarian violence, disregard for humanity…there is still some goodness. Kind acts of charity may not make headlines, but they do exist and continue to touch people’s lives.

What motivates volunteers to leave their comfort zones and venture abroad to help those in dire need? Often, it’s some type of calling. Several members of the volunteer delegation recounted stories of a vision, a dream… some type of cosmic pull from the universe outlining their path to the Syrian refugees in Jordan.

One may wonder – how much benefit can a one week medical mission have? Those children and adults that no longer have aching cavities or infectious illnesses that are quite satisfied, I’m certain. Hundreds of patients treated in one week – many who would not afford medical care or would have waited many months receive treatment. Yet beyond that, it seemed that we brought with our foreign accents and sometimes strange mannerisms a sense of hope to those who feel they may be forgotten…a  newness in the prison-like camps where time stands still waiting for a war to end.

And while the discussions between doctors and refugee Syrian patients focused largely around illnesses, each patient had a story they told with their eyes, their mannerisms, their clothing. Riches to rags. Peace to War. Cleanliness to muddy, sandy desert life. Life to death. Hopeful to depressed. Single to married. Married to widowed. Citizen to refugee.