Healing Hearts Across Borders (HHAB)

 This past summer, I was invited to volunteer with a non-profit organization called Healing Hearts Across Borders, where universities students and professionals who are in the field of medicine and science go down to Tijuana every 3 months for 3 days to help the Mexican people there. We aided the people there by donating clothes, food, free medical and dental care for two straight days in two different areas. When I got there I knew it was going to be an exciting experience but I was really unsure of what to expect. When we finally arrived to one of the sites it was amazing to see how these people lived, at first it was hard for me to communicate since my Spanish is pretty basic so I thought I couldn’t be of much use, but I was able to interact with the children really well. They understood that I didn’t know much Spanish so they would use hand gestures so we could help one another. I was so surprised that even though they were living in such hard and struggling everyday at how easy it was to make them smile and laugh. By the end of day one I had talked to many of the children and when we were just beginning to close up the shops I went across the street and started a fun game of soccer with a lot of the kids. That was the best part of my trip when I go back and reflect upon it. These kids were no different than my friends in San Diego, they were my friends, when we scored a goal or blocked a kick it was like we were all family giving each other high fives or making faces at one another. I’ve never had more fun playing soccer not really caring about the score just playing to see the smiles on their faces as they ran up and down the court. The people there are struck with poverty, violence, and a broken government but still help one another. HHAB works together with a church in Las Playas where we keep some of our supplies while also getting more donations from them. The people were so excited to see us and even knew the date of our arrival and were already waiting for us on both days to give them all the help we could.  When I was talking to one of the volunteers he was telling me how he has been part of the organization for a couple of had become so attached to an elderly woman, that he was determined to help this lady any way possible and after our volunteer groups had finished cleaning up and were all heading back to our hotels on the last day, this young man went to the elderly ladies home and fixed up her roof since she, he has kept in contact with her for his last several visits and was really making a difference while inspiring me to help people all I can since I’ve been blessed to be able to have a roof over my head. these people have done nothing wrong but were just born into horrible situations with no way out. I’ve always loved helping people, it’s something I’m good at which is why I have chosen to go into the field of foreign relations and can hopefully make a large impact on people throughout the world who aren’t as luck as most Americans are, to live in a country where opportunity is around every corner.