The Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo mission trip was by far one of the greatest, if not the greatest, experience of my life. Everyone from our team, to the patients, to the bar tenders at the pool and the jeweler walking up and down the beach under the hot sun made a huge impact on my life and the way I want to approach life from here on out.
On the first morning after the 2:15am wake up call to get to the airport the previous day, it was hard to roll out of bed while the sky was still pitch black and walk across the street. However, the struggles of the morning evaporated and turned into a thrilling buzz once the entire team had gathered and the preparation for the patients began. Everything we were doing…every task from running the sterilizer so the doctors could get into a rhythm, to running messages back and forth, to patching and prepping patients was important. Every little thing and every team member contributed to putting vision back into the world.
The work was hard, but we worked toward restoring someone’s sight and giving them a huge part of their life back and it was thrilling and worth every second. Not to mention, there was always a beautiful beach with sparkling blue waves and a blazing sun to return to after the day’s work.
Healing eyes, meeting amazing people, and hanging at the beach…it was the trip of a lifetime.