One Man's Life of Mission
By Thomas D. Segel (07/04/08)
Harlingen, Texas, July 3, 2004: "The bus maneuvered through narrow streets and on bumpy roads in a seemingly endless trip through pine woods and little hamlets. Finally after 45 minutes of rattling and swaying, racing downhill and creeping uphill, the bus stopped at the top of a mountain: Chiboj!"
This is how an elderly medical doctor, Enrique Trapp, describes his side trip to a small village, during a Protestant Medical Mission to San Raymundo, Guatemala. It was his second year to join this humanitarian mission. Prior to these medical journeys, he had been part of two Catholic Missions to Guatemala in 2003 and 2004. In 1996 he was also on another Catholic Medical Mission to the same country. Between those years, he joined two similar missions to Peru.
Even in its poverty, Dr. Trapp still loves Guatemala. “I love the fabulously beautiful landscape and vegetation, it lovely people, especially the indigenous Mayan people. I do not miss a single opportunity to return.”
The physician was joined on this mission trip by a team of 28 people, including dentists, hygienists, a pharmacist and his wife. He explained that he appreciated Hadda coming all the more because he knew she had considerable discomfort in walking for any length of time.
The big question on many minds is “Why would an 83 year old physician from Harlingen, Texas subject himself and his wife to harsh travel and primitive conditions, just to ease a little bit of pain and suffering. Those who know this man also know the answer without even stating the question. For more than 50 years he has served as a medical doctor in the Out Patient Clinic of Rio Grande State Center and the South Texas Health Care System. This is a state operated medical facility that has provided medical treatment to thousands upon thousands of indigent people and working poor. Doctor Trapp sees his periodic medical missions as a similar service to other people in need of his care.
The journey to Chiboj was just one stop on his travels. The mission was headquartered in San Raymundo, a town that also had little in the way of medical facilities. It does have the skilled help of Joyce Gring, a dedicated missionary and RN, who has served the community for the past 13 years. She assisted the team in setting up its clinic, sorting and inventorying medications and assembling equipment for laboratory tests. Nurse Gring also started processing the patients. Soon the clinic was packed with people. The medical mission was in operation.
From that primary clinic and headquarters, smaller teams spanned out to even more primitive locales. For medical services in Chiboj a three-person team of the doctor, a retired veterinarian and a third year Guatemalan medical student were selected. “We set up our clinic in about a 7 x 10 feet room, with an adjoining bathroom, but no running water”, says Trapp. “A table to examine patients and two chairs. About 8 to 10 people were waiting. ‘We can take it leisurely, we thought.’ But, the more patients we saw, the more lined up.”
During the remainder of that working day 56 patients were seen. About one third were adults the remainder being children and infants. Enrique Trapp, the only medical doctor on the mission, treated people with respiratory tract infections, gastrointestinal problems, non-specific diarrheas, parasitosis, gastritis, arthritis and high blood pressure in the elderly.
One elderly woman walked with a severe limp. He asked what happened?
“Oh, doctor”, she replied. “I broke my hip 25 years ago, but there was no medical attention was available.”
Another woman had a well-healed abdominal scar from a Hysterectomy. The stitches were still in the scar. She was asked when she had received the operation. She responded that it had been five years ago, but since the stitches didn’t bother her, she didn’t bother them.
These people had been evicted from their land in a fertile valley to the ridgeline of a hill. According to the missionary pastor that regularly served the community, the villagers were chased from their lands by a military force using threats to machetes, clubs and other weapons. They were given the hilltop as compensation and told the government would provide water and electricity. That promise was never kept.
Trapp and his team moved on to a remote locale identified only as Loma 3. Another group from their mission was already in the village building stoves, leveling a floor, laying cement block and installing steel building siding. In a neighborhood of thatched huts, this would be a building where food could be prepared much more efficiently than the current method of cooking over open fires.
This very poor village had an unbelievable number of children, but the poorest parents refused to send them to school, because their labor is needed in the fields. The site also brought a similar mix of patients, including diabetics, orthopedic problems and even a gynecological concern that had to be referred to another team, expected to arrive in about a month.
As the team concluded its humanitarian journey to Guatemala, Enrique Trapp, who lived in that country from age 3 to 17, reflected on the real question of the hour. Did they make a difference?
His personal answer to that question is, “I think, we have been good ambassador of this great Country, especially at a time when we are being blamed for about everything going wrong in the world. (We do this by) Showing interest, compassion and willingness to help. Have we helped the disadvantaged spiritually to get on the right track? Have we made a difference in the state of their health? Here and there, yes. With the relatively small problems, yes. But in the big picture?”
Doctor Trapp, with the knowledge formed from a lifetime of service to humanity believes health providers from everywhere, along with governmental resources should join forces and make these contributions to the poor of the world even more meaningful. While he waits for this to happen, he will continue his daily care of those from among the working poor and indigent community at the Rio Grande State Center/South Texas Health Care System Out Patient Clinic…. And perhaps, just perhaps…undertake another medical mission.
Semper Fidelis
Tom Segel
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