This is the second Thanksgiving I’ve spent with Team Rubicon serving on an international medical response. The first was Operation Hermes, when Team Rubicon provided primary medical care to refugees in Northern Greece in 2016.
Now, I’m in Jamaica, responding to Hurricane Melissa and helping provide medical care to those injured during and after the disaster this year.
While it may seem like a difficult time to be serving abroad away from our families during the holidays, I find this to be a particularly rewarding time to respond to areas of immense need.
Doing this work allows me to bear witness to the endurance, tenacity, and humanity that arises after these disasters. Many think this work is rewarding due to a feeling of personal accomplishment for our singular contributions. In fact, what I take in witnessing these communities rebuild—and the resilience of the human spirit when put up against unimaginable hardship—is the reward. It is the foundation of my gratitude and thankfulness in my everyday life, and I carry it with me in perpetuity.
We aren’t here to save; we are here to serve. And, to act merely as a catalyst for these incredible people and their ability to persevere and rebuild their beautiful country.
While serving in Greece, we found ourselves sharing a community meal of gratitude with an incredible group of refugees and multi-national volunteers. Our cultures may have been very different, especially as Thanksgiving is not a holiday in many of their countries of origin. However, eating a family-style meal, speaking to our collective gratitude, and sharing hospitality and humanity serve as a reminder that we are one. That together, communally, we will drive forward into the light and out of the dark.
I’m reminded of that lesson this year in Jamaica, where I am witnessing a fierce sense of collective humanity from local community members who are stepping up to serve their neighbors in need. Many are doing so while facing incredible disparities themselves.
We are also partnering with multinational volunteers and sister organizations like World Central Kitchen and Samaritan’s Purse, all working in a beautiful, synchronized alliance in our own specialty areas.
All of us, no matter whether we’re here during our home country’s holiday or just separated from family for an extended period, soldier on. We’re humble, capable, and fiercely determined to bring aid to those marooned in this storm, delivering ourselves in service to the beautifully capable and enduring people of Jamaica.
