Personal Experience of St. Andrew's Clinic

As a human you can't help but feel for the patients, the doctors, nurses and volunteers. However, as a journalist you couldn't have more stories and project ideas placed in front of you. Each story unique, each story has a personality, and each story can come alive through the right documentation.

I had an opportunity to report and document a day at St.Andrew's Children's Clinic in Nogales,Arizona. The clinic is put on once a month through donations and treats children who several different disabilities, diseases, or impairments.

When I first got there, I was very intimidated. Here I was, completely healthy and fortunate enough to afford the camera around my arm, let alone the contact lenses in my eyes. I'm a student, reporting on what goes on each first Thursday of the month, trying to capture the actions and emotions of everyone around me. Who was going to talk to me? Who could speak English? Who was I to try to talk to these people?

I thought I would start out with pictures- capturing the emotion on the camera would be my goal, then I could write about it later.Asking the parents to take pictures was the first obstacle for getting up close and personal. "Lo puedo tomar la foto?" I'm not even sure if that's right, but when I said it, the parents were only happy to accept my offer so that I could get up close and personal in order to tell a story.

I worked mostly in the orthopedic/prosthetics wing, closely with the doctors, patients and volunteers. I was told about certain conditions, like cerebral palsy, that kept children from being able to attain normal movement- mostly of the legs/feet. The doctors molded, shaved, and formed braces around the children's legs, ensuring a perfect fit. The faces of the children who were given treatment were unforgettable and completely humbling. Again, I was trying to be the journalist, get the story, tell it, and let those who read it choose their own emotions. However, I felt it impossible to stay emotionally detached.

From this experiences (described briefly in this blog) I was able to create three great stories as well as a slide show or two. The stories I created focused on odiology, orthopedics, and the motivation behind the volunteers who work there. This blog is only a small preview into what I'm about to put together along with my fellow journalists on Border beat.net. Check it out next week!