Wrapping up the Mission with Personal Takeaways

As the 2012 CAMTA mission wraps up the remaining patients in recovery receive their discharge instructions and the hand-off to the local medical team is completed. Team Two finalizes the inventory, packing and storing of medical supplies. Team One is back in Canada re-adjusting to life back home, catching up with work, family and friends and has some time to share stories and reflect on what they took away from their volunteer experience.
As volunteers we get so much out of our experience with CAMTA. Having participated twice on a CAMTA mission I am awestruck at how quickly a group of strangers can come from across Canada and get down to quality team work to achieve a goal. Organizations spend hours of time training their staff on teamwork and collaboration and somehow, whether it is the clear task at hand, or our great sense of purpose – we get down to the mission work quickly and bond as if we have worked together for years, in a matter of days. Volunteering with CAMTA is a reminder to me of the quality of the human spirit and our ability to work together. I asked other volunteers to share their takeaways.

                                       (Some of the Week One team in front of the Radisson Hotel.)

Here’s what a new CAMTA volunteer had to say;“My CAMTA experience renewed my dedication to being a nurse and helping my patients. Everyone respected each other in their respective roles and we all worked together to provide the best care possible. To me that is what healthcare should be. I am very thankful for the relationships that I have in my life. Family and relationships was a very strong theme that I observed from the people of Quito. It made me resolve to work on the relationships that I have at home even more.”
From a long-serving volunteer;“My biggest take away is always the people – both the patients, families and volunteers. It never ceases to amaze me how much people give of themselves without asking for anything in return. I ask myself how we can change the culture in Canada to reflect what we see here. After every year I have a bit of culture shock returning back to Canada and it takes me about a week to recover and deal again with a culture of selfishness and greed, that's the bad part –  the good thing is that the Mission always makes me want to do more, not just in Quito, but also at home.”
From a young student volunteer;“I think this volunteer experience has opened my eyes to how hard people work and how dedicated people are about a cause they are passionate about. The amount of work that is required to organize and put on an operation like CAMTA is phenomenal; and to think that the sole motivation is for charity, without the incentive of making money, is extraordinary.”
There is so much to give, and so much to get in return. One of Ecuador’s most noted artists Oswaldo Guayasamin said; “if we do not have the strength to grasp our hands with everyone’s hands, if we do not have the tenderness to hold in our arms the children of the world, if we do not have the will to clean the earth of all its armies; this small planet will be a dry and black body in a dark space”.

Ecuador teaches us every year that the human spirit is strong and that the power of giving can sow the seeds of change.
We welcome you to experience this for yourself by volunteering with CAMTA. For more information go to our website: www.camta.ca. Recruitment for 2013 starts in June.  
What was your takeaway from your volunteer experience with CAMTA? Please post a comment on this blog.
Janet Emmett, CAMTA Week One Volunteer