When I was 17 my heart belonged to one person… his name was Nick. We met in our junior year of high school but it wasn’t until our senior year that we dated. Like so many things in life we at first didn’t like each other very much, but after a few short days of being in close proximity we allowed those crazy young hearts of ours to be filled with one another. The summer after our senior year was spent driving my dad’s mustang with the top down, sneaking kisses behind our parents’ backs, laughter, the drama that is leaving for college, and young love. We celebrated our 18th birthdays together and my gift from him was a teddy bear and dinner, but most special to me- a song played and sung by him. He chose ‘Patience’ by Guns and Roses….
Now why other than nostalgia am I recounting this? Well- on Tuesday the Floating Doctors conducted our first Mobil Clinic in the fishing village that is on the beach across from where the boat is anchored. Ben had gone over the day before with a man from the village that had asked us to come and help and decided where it was going to take place and to help the interpreter explain what we were going to be doing and how many people we would be able to see while there. We worked at the regular clinic in the morning, came back to the ship to grab our medical “go” bags, and off we went to the beach. When we pulled up there were already 50 + people standing in line—women, children, young, and old. Being that it was only Ben and Rachel able to come we could only see 32 medical patients and Rachel was going to clean 12 children’s teeth. As one can imagine the first moments were quite hectic while handing out the numbers and making sure that a riot didn’t break out… but we did it. I obviously do nothing medical during the clinics, but what I can do is intake. I sit at a table in the front with an interpreter and an intake form and I take the problem presenting and histories so that Ben is able to solely exam and diagnose. This is great for the speed at which we can get through people, but it puts me right out in front, once again in front of a mob of people wanting to get seen and impatient at the wait.
Being that I am 5’3” and weigh just over 100 lbs forty something people standing in front of me and yelling in Creole is a bit scary. I was getting very frustrated trying to hear what the patients were saying (most of which were children that were scared themselves) while explaining to the crowd that they had to be calm and that we will get to them as soon as we could. The men working security for us were doing the best that they could to keep people from crowding around the intake table but the need is great in the community and people were very eager to see the doctor. I started to get a bit overwhelmed and was thinking of pulling us out—the people—the yelling—the intake information—the heat—the bugs… and then out of the noise was a very familiar guitar solo followed by Axel Rose’s one and only voice. Patience. In an instant I was no longer on a remote beach in Haiti, but sitting in a dorm room in LA listening to the then love of my life singing me a song about the patience that is needed in love.
It is so funny how life can be- I think that I actually nodded to myself. Whatever it is you believe in God, Buddha, a Higher Power, a broom, whatever it is… mine spoke to me on that beach. Don’t worry—be patient. It is needed in love and loving acts. I no longer was overwhelmed and saw then not 50 people yelling at me, but 50 people that have no access to what we posses. They have sick children, Malaria, Abscessing teeth, worms and no one that is helping them. The rest of the clinic went very well—Ben and I stayed until way after dark getting eaten by bugs and doing exams by flashlight but finding joy in what we were doing.
11 years after that night in Nick’s dorm room he is married to a wonderful woman and they are expecting their first little boy this fall and I am off exploring the world and everything that it and I have to offer. He doesn’t know it but I have the word “Patience” tattooed on my left foot— I never connected my love of the word with that song—but life has an ironic way of coming full circle. This trip has already opened my eyes to so many things both in the present and the past that will stay with me. Be Patient, Open your eyes to the beauty and truth in any situation—even overwhelming ones, and never ever forget the feeling of being young and in love while driving with the top down.
