Posted on July 30, 2013
I had answered an ad seeking optometric volunteers for a Christian medical mission to St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. Missing out on a similar experience while in school, I decided to take a break from private practice and make the trip. However, the Jamaica I experienced was far from that pictured in travel brochures. Our group saw the island that the tourists never get to see from behind the resort’s 12-foot concrete walls: Abject poverty, people living in pinewood huts with tin roofs, no utilities and little income.