- Reflection on International Aid Trip to - Jordan
In November of 2019 Gators for Refugee Medical Relief (GRMR) joined the organization Atlantic Humanitarian Relief (AHR) to provide medical and humanitarian aid to Syrian, Palestinian, Yemeni, and Iraqi refugees in the Kingdom of Jordan.
I had the privilege of joining Valentina Fandino, Nikka Bakhtiar, Nickou Memari, Nushrat Nur, and Alyssa Quinn from GRMR on this mission. The night before our trip, we all met at Valentina’s apartment and we packed all of the medical supplies we fundraised for as a club to bring to Jordan. We each had one suitcase for our clothes, and one suitcase full of the donations we collected. It took a day and a half of travel to get to Amman. We had a twelve-hour overnight layover in New York City before our flight to Doha, Qatar, and then finally to Amman.
Once we arrived, we all pretty much went to sleep immediately although it was only one in the afternoon there. We stayed at the Ayass Hotel in Amman which was very modern and comfortable for us all. They provided a free breakfast buffet for us every morning before we embarked on the highway to get to each respective location. I am going to preface the rest of this blog post by saying that if I wrote about this entire trip and included everything I wish I could, it would be far too many pages and I do not think that many of you would finish it. Therefore, I will only include the experiences that really stood out from each day at the camp.
At the opening ceremony at the start of the mission, we learned that we would be split up into different bus groups and would be traveling to different locations. This was nerve-wracking because I didn’t know anybody other than the people we came with and I was not sure if the other volunteers would all speak English, where we would be going, or how safe I would be. Luckily, I got paired in the same group as Nikka for the first two days, so I got to ease into the clinical days with a friend. The first day we only had a half day after the opening ceremony, so the medical and humanitarian teams split off into different clinics around Amman. My group was sent to a women’s clinic and we served mostly impoverished Jordanians from the surrounding neighborhood. We started the mission off this way because it feels somewhat immoral to have volunteers go into another country and only serve a refugee population without taking the native population into account as well. Although I did not know it at the time, some of the Arab volunteers I became closest with on this trip were already in my group on that first day.
We had a full week of volunteering in different locations after the first day. Each morning started at 6:00 am because we all had to eat and get ready. The buses left at 7:00 am sharp. Most locations I went to were about two hours away so if I needed to sleep on the bus, it was possible, but probably not preferred because the Arab volunteers played music, sang, and clapped the entire way to the locations. After the first day, I definitely joined in. I didn’t really have a choice. The other volunteers would encourage me and chant my name until I got up and danced with them and clapped on the bus on the way back if I was not already.
I really felt so comfortable and welcomed once I met everyone. There was so much love and empathy to go around.
It was hard not to become friends with everyone else because we were all working long hours together towards the same goals in these conditions. Some locations were clinics held in community centers or madrasas, and some locations were in smaller refugee camps located right up near the Syrian border. Some dental teams went to the Zaatari refugee camp, which is the largest refugee camp in Jordan, but most of the other medical and humanitarian teams were sent to more remote locations.
The conditions in the refugee camps were probably what you would expect from the outside, but there were a few surprises inside the tents. I was assigned to triage with a group of medical students from various universities in Amman and Irbid. Most of them were twenty to twenty-three and they came from countries from all over the middle east, including Syria. I was also paired up with a physical therapy graduate student from Austria so when I had a free minute from triage, I would go and shadow him and what he was doing with the refugees. I am a pre-occupational therapy student, but he was the closest volunteer we had on this mission and I learned a lot regardless. For triage, I was in charge of taking blood glucose levels, blood pressure, pulse, and temperature.
Something I really took from this trip was how much can be silently said when looking into another human’s eyes without having to say a word. Trust was transferred and I could assure them that I was there for them and they could thank me all through eye contact and a smile.
I knew the refugees in the camps appreciated us being there. In one camp, one of the families brought us out homemade goatmilk yoghurt which was surprisingly really good. At one madrasa about fifteen minutes from the Syrian border, the people from the school stopped everything and had all of the volunteers move upstairs to eat Syrian style chicken biriyani which was to die for. Honestly, all the food at every restaurant we went to was absolutely amazing. For the first couple of nights, we would all meet at a restaurant together and it was paid for by the organization. Once all the volunteers from different parts of the world got to know all the local volunteers, they allowed us to make our own nighttime plans.
So, during the day, we would work long hours from nine until the late afternoon and sometimes into the night, and then we would be free to go out into Amman and do what we wished as long as we got enough sleep. I would go more into depth on what I saw and experienced in the camps, but some things I have not told anybody outside of the group that went, and I do not feel comfortable sharing because it is raw and I would like to uphold the integrity of these people, even if I don’t remember all their faces. I guess what I would like to convey is that GRMR stands for the people who do not have a choice over the conditions in which they live. Although these people do exist, and it may be easy to pity them, pity is not helpful. It is impossible to take away anybody’s struggle, and even if it were possible, to do so may make these individuals feel even more helpless. I believe it is better to help people in need help themselves so that they can have some control over their lives to gain a sense of accomplishment.
It is most important to believe in them and see them as humans who are equal to you. Even though they are in the situation they are in, I still found smiles at every location I was at.
I was the only guy from this group that attended the mission from GRMR, and although I would have considered myself pretty close with the rest of the girls that went, I clicked really well with a friend group that already existed that went to the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid. Most of our free nights I ended up with them. They took me to their favorite restaurants in Amman, told me all about them and their lives, and really made me feel included and welcome. I did have to remind them to translate after they laughed about something in Arabic which was usually met with “it’s not funny in English” followed by more laughter. They asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to do what they would do if I wasn’t there, so they took me to an overlook in a fancy neighborhood to park and sit on the side of the road in the middle of the night and eat seeds, drink tea, and ask each other questions. It was a very nice refresher because here in America it seems as though college students our age have to drink something, snort something, or smoke something in order to have fun. I had one of the best times I had ever had sober just sitting there and enjoying the moment. One thing I definitely learned too late is that you cannot say you like something that someone else has without expecting that thing to become a gift. I complimented my friend Sajda’s jacket and it is hanging in my closet at home (and it fits me perfectly). I still talk to these friends every couple weeks and when we facetime, we facetime for hours.
Overall the trip was an amazing experience. After the mission had ended, we had a weekend before we had to fly back. Our plan was to go to Petra and Wadi Rum and rent an Air BnB out in that area, but AHR set up a coach bus for any volunteer to go, so GRMR went along with the rest of the AHR volunteers who wanted to go. This was an unforgettable 24 hours. We left at four am and returned the next night at two am. We saw the treasury in Petra and walked around a little bit, before hopping into the back of a couple of trucks and flying across the desert into the sunset. They took us to an oasis resort, and we ate dinner with other guests staying there, looked at the stars, and danced to a mix of house music and Arab music in the resort’s venue. We left there around midnight if I remember correctly to return back to the Ayass hotel. I made many friends on that trip too that I do still talk to.
If any of you all are interested in going on a trip like this through GRMR in the future, I couldn’t recommend it enough. If you are worried about money and funding, I would say to over plan and bring more than you actually need. I was on a budget and I was fine, but there are always going to be experiences that come up that may cost a little extra. I actually scheduled my return ticket a day later than the rest of the girls. This caused extreme panic, although short-lived, because I was running low on funds and I didn’t have a place to stay. Immediately, two different volunteers offered me to stay at their place for the night and the one I knew best told me that he would make sure I got to the airport. As I have previously mentioned, so much love energy within the AHR family. All of us who went are always going to be a part of that. The people with AHR are the same kind of people you find in GRMR, but from all over the planet.