Sarawak Mission Trip- October 22-28,2018
I’m Ch’ng Xin Yi from Class Dip 2019-1. I’m here to share about my experience and what I’ve gained from this mission trip. I have to say that this is my very first mission trip and I’ve always wanted to join one. One of the reasons of my eagerness to join this mission trip is from the inspiration from some TV programmes that had introduced about medical missions. Although I have joined many camps before during my secondary school years, this is a very new experience to me especially as a medical team member. We went to the villages, and had helped to serve the poor, old and young regardless of their ethnicity.
During this trip, I was helping in the pharmacy station. I was in-charged of taking height, weight and checking on blood glucose. I must say that the duties at the pharmacy station was very challenging as there were more than 10 boxes of medicines consisting up to 50 kinds of medicines in total. Staff nurse Cindy and I felt very lost on the first day as we had tons of medicines to handle especially when we had only a very short briefing on where the medicines were stored. It was a challenge to me. Even though Iām confident in handling medication, however there were too many types of medicines and I’ve never come across some of those before. Moreover, I had to pack and count the accurate amount for the days of medicines supply according to what the doctors had ordered. So, once I received the prescription paper, I had to look for the medicines immediately from the table that we have organized for. Otherwise, I would have to trace it from the boxes and then packed them into zipper bags, write down the details of medicines on a simple form. Then, Staff Nurse Cindy would cross-check the medicine and then explain the medication to patients. We actually finished our clinic session very late on the first day, as we had consumed a lot of time looking for medicines especially when we had a very long queue of patients.
Thankfully, we had managed to work more efficiently on the second day after we had another round of discussion, before we started the clinic. I’m glad that I had a chance to participate in the pharmacy station not only to learn about new medicines, but also the teamwork we had achieved doing the service to the patients. Despite of those, the villagers there were very loving and passionate. They welcomed us with scrumptious foods, queued in a long line to have a hand shake with every one of us, gave away packs of snacks they have prepared us before we went back. This was how they show their appreciation and thankfulness to us. It was heart-warming and I was very touched.
I have to say that I have no regrets in this trip because the things we’ve learned and the experience we had is so precious. I would like to thank the doctors and pastors, who had taught us a lot. As well as, Madam Ong, who always takes care of us, gives us joy and love. Lastly, I would like to thank to our college for giving us an opportunity to join such a meaningful mission trip, and if there’s another chance, I still will want to be a part of it. Thank you!
– Ch’ng Xin Yi, Diploma 2019(1)