Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • [music rises and falls for next minute and throughout]

  • [Father Michael Della Penna] So I'm sitting here listening to you,

  • and, uh, you're so, uh, typically diversified Canadians.

  • So beautiful, such a richness I see when I'm, uh, speaking to you.

  • And I wanted to kinda fit that into the context

  • of what y- we're welcoming you into.

  • You know, and then even when I see you,

  • the professional, the amazing talents you have,

  • you know, and you are our most, uh,

  • you know, uh, I wanna say, sophisticated,

  • or most advancedly trained group that'll come in here at Valley.

  • You know, we have other groups that come

  • as college students and this beautiful mission experience,

  • and you offer us something we can't h- get.

  • You know, like that kinda training and that kinda capacity.

  • These kids come from broken homes.

  • Um, there's a lot of abuse, you know, sexual and, uh, physical.

  • So we always feel like, um, the only love they get is from us.

  • You know, like... they're like hungry for love.

  • You know, they wanna be loved,

  • and we feel like if we can give 'em that,

  • you know, that, then we can build on that.

  • [Frankie Burg-Feret] It's our first day here,

  • we got in last night,

  • and, uh, what we've decided to do, we're here at the clinic,

  • um, which is on the Valley of the Angels grounds here.

  • And, uh, we decided that this afternoon,

  • we're going to test all the children at the school for their hemoglobin.

  • Hemoglobin's important because, uh,

  • there's a really high percentage of children here in Guatemala

  • that are malnourished.

  • The students are awesome.

  • They have organized all the medications today.

  • The paramedic students

  • are going to be putting together our bags

  • 'cause we're gonna be doing a clinic tomorrow.

  • So they're organizing all that.

  • And there's a lot of details, 'cause we need all our diagnostic tools,

  • we need all our medications,

  • and then we've got our translators here

  • so that we can talk to the, the children,

  • and they know what we're saying.

  • Um, so lots of details, but they're all working together.

  • [Father Michael] And this has been, uh, such a beautiful gift for us,

  • uh, through Frankie and Humber College.

  • You're offering something we've never had,

  • which is like a triage.

  • You come in at the beginning of the year,

  • and that gives us the opportunity to identify all of the problems

  • that need, you know, immediate attention.

  • [Ruth Lue] You know, you wish you could do more for them,

  • um, but at the same time, I know that we have limited resources

  • and we have limited capacity.

  • So rather than focus on what I can't do,

  • I'm really excited about what I can do,

  • and I'm really motivated to do it as best as I can for all of them.

  • [Cameron Woodman] Being a paramedic, you don't get, um,

  • especially as a paramedic student, you don't get

  • as much exposure to pediatrics

  • as you, as you normally would if you were a regular medic.

  • So when you're first learning it,

  • I thought this would be a good experience for that.

  • Paramedics, you deal more acute care.

  • It'll be good to work with nurses

  • and see how they do their, sort of, assessments

  • and seeing more, uh, primary care

  • and taking your scope a little further than what I would normally do.

  • After we're done the hemoglobin tests today,

  • tomorrow we have, uh, we're going to a Guatemalan dump,

  • and we're setting up a clinic there for the day.

  • I think it'll be a wealth of experience both professionally and, uh, personally,

  • just being in another country, being involved in something like this,

  • being a member of such an a- awesome team.

  • Yeah, I just think there's an enumerable amount of things

  • that I'll take out of this.

  • [woman 1] Yeah, so if our income is 15 dollars a month....

  • [woman 2] How much does Dad make?

  • [woman 1] 10.38 a week.

  • [woman 2] 10.38 a week? [woman 1] Mm hmm.

  • You're going to work. [man] Jose's is going to work.

  • [woman 1] Yeah. [all laughing]

  • So now with that, with Jose going to work,

  • now we have to spend twelve dollars a week

  • for the bare minimum.

  • [woman 2] How much do we need for the loan?

  • [woman 3] It doesn't say. Like, let's say Grandma was sick,

  • we didn't have any money, and she needed the 2.50,

  • we'd probably take the loan to pay for the medicine.

  • [woman 4] I think it should be a last, last resort.

  • [woman 2] That is- Yeah, like, ten percent on a loan?

  • [woman 3] But your grandma, like, I'm just saying,

  • if your grandmother's really sick, you just need five dollars.

  • [woman 1] If Grandma needs five dollars,

  • and we have an extra 3.10,

  • I think we can lose those extra two dollars and maybe....

  • [woman 4] Like the milk or something.

  • [woman 2] What if we save it up over two weeks and grandma goes next week?

  • [woman 5] No, 'cause we don't need 21 cups of milk.

  • [woman 2] 21 f- for the week, though.

  • [woman 5] So Carlos is the very last hope.

  • I'm gonna be the only one going to school.

  • [woman 4] How old is he? [woman 1] Ten.

  • [woman 2] I think it's psychologically hard,

  • uh, for kids, especially if they're in school,

  • to have to come out of school.

  • And then you, you know, everywhere you hear,

  • oh, like, you know, through education,

  • this is where, you know, this s- helps to break that poverty.

  • And then you've gotta come out of school

  • to help the family make money and things like that.

  • And then for the mom, or I guess the parents,

  • to know that they can't provide for their family.

  • [woman] The article really made me think about

  • some of my own experiences, speaking of being here,

  • that I have, like, on my ride-outs when I'm on the ambulance.

  • And it made me think of one particular call

  • where, um, we were called to, like, an Orthodox Jewish man's home.

  • He was having chest pain, and, like, I wanted to assess him

  • and I was trying to go in there and assess him,

  • and he didn't want to be touched by me,

  • he didn't want to have any interaction with me.

  • And at first, my first response was, like,

  • "No. I'm trying to help you.

  • Like, you need to let me do the things that I need to do."

  • Um, and then I got, like, defensive.

  • And I was like, "Oh, like, this is stupid."

  • And I got kind of worked up about it.

  • But then reflecting back on it, especially after reading this article,

  • I'm like, like I wasn't, I had the best of intentions,

  • but from how he perceived it,

  • like, it was probably a horrible situation for him.

  • Like, he didn't wanna be touched by me, um, for his own religious beliefs,

  • which is something that he's grown up with,

  • and he's been living with his whole life.

  • And I think, now looking back,

  • like, I made that an unpleasant experience for him

  • when I, I really just wanted to help him.

  • Um, and so I think it's the same. It'll be the same when we go there.

  • Even if we have the best of intentions, like, it can be misconstrued.

  • [woman 1] All people who are involved in planning this

  • really did a good job about

  • showing us a lot of the cultural side of it.

  • We're not just going there to do assessments all day.

  • That's not it.

  • So I think we are getting a lot of exposure

  • to the culture.

  • And I don't think any of us really are arrogant, or....

  • [woman 2] Sometimes you might not think it comes across that way.

  • But like, like, as a minority,

  • like, some people will say, like, "Oh, I went to Jamaica,"

  • and they just tell you about some random experience,

  • and they think that, like.... [woman 1] That's your life.

  • [woman 2] Yeah, like... I, like, associate with that.

  • You know, at school, we always learned about, um,

  • cultural sensitivity, but we never learn cultural humility.

  • [woman 3] Yep, that's true. [woman 2] And I think cultural sensitivity,

  • it's like you're coming from up here.

  • It's like, "My culture's superior, and I'm trying to be sensitive to you."

  • Whereas cultural humility, it's like I'm coming down here, now.

  • Like, I'm coming below because I understand

  • that I don't know everything about you, I don't understand all of the nuances,

  • and, you know, the particulars about your culture,

  • and I'm very open to learn, and I'm very open to be taught by you.

  • But you'll never truly know, and you won't.

  • We're coming there and doing all of these assessments,

  • and, you know, giving medications.

  • But at the end of the day, like, I want for them to say, like,

  • aside from that, like, I had a good experience.

  • [Frankie] Right now, we're on our way to the Guatemala City dump.

  • It's the largest dump in Central America.

  • There's about 3,000 families that work in the Guatemala City dump.

  • And they don't have access to healthcare.

  • And we had the good fortune,

  • I did, through, I um did, and Father Michael

  • to meet a fellow named Juan-Carlos Molina,

  • and he started this school for kids that, of these families.

  • [Juan-Carlos Molina] When we identify

  • the 450 kids who are at risk in this zone three,

  • we will have 100 percent of the kids who are damaged by heart

  • and we take out all of the trash that you have in the mind

  • as what people say or the parents say,

  • "I wish you weren't born."

  • "I wish you were every day on the trashcan."

  • And they really do, do mean that, and the, and the kid gathers that,

  • and, and brings it inside of his heart.

  • When you take all of that, and the kid sees who he really is,

  • you, you fall in love with yourself.

  • We want them to fall in love with themselves,

  • s- so then they can have a purpose in life.

  • [Frankie] There are kids here that are abused,

  • um, physically, sexually,

  • and, uh, so it's hard for us to really imagine what it must be like.

  • So we've got our Humber students. They're doing an amazing job.

  • [Ioana Golubovici] We are assessing them,

  • uh, the doctor's seeing them, we're giving them medications,

  • teaching them how to take those medications,

  • how to change their dressings for their wounds.

  • And yeah, anybody can learn the skills

  • of how to assess a child, how to take vitals,

  • how to give medications,

  • but nothing, nothing can prepare you for coming here

  • and, and seeing, seeing how these people live,

  • an- and just how much life they have.

  • [Jenna Ritch] Back home, you rarely ever see kids

  • dealing with stuff like this, you know?

  • We deal with sick kids,

  • but usually it's not, it's not such chronic conditions.

  • It's more acute stuff.

  • Um, so it's really hard to see them

  • 'cause they shouldn't, they shouldn't have to deal

  • with infections and UTIs at this age.

  • Like, they just should be having fun, and living life, and enjoying life.

  • They shouldn't have any worries in the world.

  • Um, so it's just hard to, to see this already,

  • that they're suffering through so much.

  • So anything we can do for them, like, we'll do.

  • Like, I'm happ- I would wish we could spend

  • all day here, and see all the kids.

  • [Frankie] So what experiences today did you find most challenging?

  • [Marni Priffer] You can give 'em, you know, 20 Tylenol,

  • but that's not gonna keep them going until they get seen by a doctor,

  • if they even go see a, a doctor for the problems that they were having.

  • So I found that, um, frustrating.

  • And not knowing whether or not

  • they would even use the medication that we're giving them.

  • [Ruth] We look at a lot of their backgrounds

  • their father, their mothers,

  • and then you think, okay, so we've taken care, not,

  • and not even thoroughly, of like one small aspect.

  • But what about, like, the larger picture?

  • Like, what about, like, all of the other psychosocial,

  • spiritual aspects of it.

  • And there are so many other things that we can't touch on,

  • and I think that was, like, the biggest piece for me.

  • Like, what can we.... Like, we're not even going there.

  • You know? And there's so much about them.

  • And, you know, Juan, Juan-Carlos was saying

  • that, you know, you have to heal the heart

  • to heal, like, everything else.

  • And I was, like, wow, we didn't even, we didn't even really get there.

  • I know, like, part of it is, like, you're showing them that you care.

  • And that touches a lot, some of it.

  • But, like, when we leave, there's, they gotta go back to that.

  • [Ioana] I, um, I feel very small

  • after my experience today.

  • I feel like the world is just such a much bigger place

  • than I imagined before.

  • And also, as much of a culture shock it was to come here,

  • I think it's gonna be even worse going home,

  • and seeing how I'm going to live

  • with all my newfound knowledge and, and experiences.

  • [Lyndsay Piper] I find it hard to imagine not having anybody.

  • Um, whether you don't have any siblings or any, any family member,

  • um, and that, how lucky these kids were

  • to have somebody like Juan-Carlos step up a- and take that role.

  • [Priscilla Jaro] Like, last night, while I was playing with, uh, the girls,

  • I realized that they, what they spoke to me about

  • was Justin Bieber, One Direction, and the, uh, pop culture.

  • And so I realized, like, children are children,

  • like, to me, as you said,

  • and that we're all interconnected in some ways.

  • [Cameron] Just interacting with them this morning

  • and hearing their stories and that sort of thing

  • made me truly understand the fact that

  • I will never understand where they're coming from.

  • And it's not possible to understand where they're coming from.

  • Um, I can relate to them maybe some small ways

  • on a just basic human level,

  • but their experiences are something

  • I'm not gonna be able to ever comprehend.

  • [Nicholas Feugas] I was incredibly humbled

  • just at the, the strength that these kids have.

  • I mean, [clears throat] Juan, Juan-Carlos said something about

  • how he could never survive

  • in the conditions that these kids live in.

  • And I don't think any.... I know I couldn't.

  • And so to think about how strong these kids actually are

  • that they could survive and come up through this

  • and get to the point that they're at now, it's incredible.

  • So that's, that's extremely humbling for me.

  • [Father Michael] They put up the toothbrush to the child,

  • and they said, "Do you know what this is? Do you use this?"

  • And he was like, "No."

  • And that's just, like, shocking.

  • You have one of the most advanced, uh, you know, medical health systems,

  • and then there's a child, doesn't even know what a toothbrush is.

  • You know? It's so, like, um, it's just non-existent.

  • And, uh, that's the contrast.

  • You know, you're talking, like, they don't have anything, nothing.

  • [Cameron] For us to go to the doctor, it's no big deal. We know the drill.

  • But for them, they're, like, afraid. They have no idea what's going on.

  • They've, like, this look of fear and this nervousness,

  • and it's kinda an extra boundary to get over,

  • and also a bit of a weight on you

  • to make sure that the experience is not a terrible one,

  • so the next time, if they ever do get the opportunity

  • to go see a doctor, or interact with a medical person,

  • th- they're not gonna be afraid as the result with interacting with us.

  • So I always feel bad if we we're, like, doing a hemoglobin test

  • and then they're, like,

  • relating to that, like, their first experience

  • with a medical professional is, like, pain or fear or something.

  • So it's kinda a boundary to get over that fear,

  • but also to kinda make it sure it's not difficult

  • for the next time they go see a doctor.

  • I just found it kinda interesting the difference between

  • how us, it's no big deal, but for them, it's a huge unknown.

  • [Ruth] You talk about a global community.

  • You know? If we all participated as global citizens,

  • and all did what we ought to do, and all take accountability for it,

  • I think these little projects are a start of something even greater.

  • Then other organizations and other people say, hey,

  • like, if they can do that, if they're doing this,

  • let's mobilize too, and let's do other things together.

  • And so you'll have more, like....

  • There's a lot of groups coming here,

  • but maybe they'll start, you know, thinking more creatively,

  • not just for Guatemala, but worldwide.

  • So I think this is also exciting,

  • and it's also good news at the same time.

  • Like, we can't look at how much little we're doing.

  • Like, what Frankie said, if we, if we don't do it,

  • then who's going to do it, right?

  • [Lyndsay] Right now, we're in, uh, Mano Amiga

  • doing a clinic, um,

  • for some of the poorer people in this community.

  • Today, I'm doing the health teaching.

  • So we're the last step of the process.

  • Um, so once they've seen a doctor,

  • the doctor's kinda made any diagnosis that they've made,

  • and any medications that they need,

  • they come to us for the health teaching.

  • Uh, we dispense the medications,

  • we describe to them, and their parents,

  • how to take it properly, why they're taking it.

  • [Marni] As a parent, uh, I see the par-

  • some of the parents with the children when they come in.

  • And, you know, it doesn't matter where they're from,

  • th- you can see that they, they love their children

  • just like I love my children.

  • Um, but seeing kids that are so, uh, in need is heart wrenching.

  • [man] What's the main challenge for you being here?

  • [Lyndsay] The la- language barrier, for sure.

  • Especially kids, they talk so fast,

  • and they don't understand that we don't speak the language.

  • So, you know, I'll try to say something

  • and then they think that I know how to speak Spanish,

  • and they'll just start speaking full sentences

  • and asking every question,

  • and I have no idea what they're saying, so.

  • Why did I get picked to come on this trip?

  • Um, in my letter of intent, it mostly just said about

  • the experience that I would have working with a vulnerable population,

  • giving back to a community,

  • um, taking the skills that I've learned as a student

  • and being able to apply them in more of a rural setting.

  • I mean, right now, we're working out of a classroom

  • on school children's desks, you know?

  • And I think I'm very adaptable to work in those environments,

  • and, um, give them everything that we've had in our training,

  • give our time.

  • [bell ringing]

  • [Nicholas] Yeah, so we went to visit a family

  • in, uh, uh, San José, uh, Pinula.

  • And it was, uh, the, you know,

  • poorest family that I've, I've ever seen.

  • The, the conditions they were living in,

  • I've never experienced or seen that in person.

  • And it was, actually,

  • although they said it was improved from what it was like last year,

  • it's far worse than I actually expected.

  • There was about nine people living in, I don't know,

  • it was... it was a, a corrugated sheet metal shack, essentially.

  • They had, you know, cement, sort of, walls,

  • and a, like, an open fire

  • where they're cooking tortillas inside.

  • So all that smoke was just coming into the little house.

  • I don't know. It's hard to, it's hard to put into words.

  • Like, seeing that in person is ju-

  • I found it, sort of, actually, you know, complete paradigm shift.

  • [Marni] There's no door on the front door.

  • You basically just walk into an entranceway into their house.

  • So anybody could go in, anybody could, could go out.

  • So, you thi- you think about, you know, 16 month old, how curious they are,

  • how, um, you know, they like to explore.

  • You start wandering, they go up a little step,

  • and they're out on the street.

  • While we were talking, there was a big gust of wind,

  • and the whole roof kinda went up about a foot

  • and then came crashing back down a couple of times.

  • You know, imagine how much protection they actually have

  • from any of the, uh, elements.

  • [Nicholas] There were young kids

  • and, uh, you know, 16 month old kids there.

  • Even just considering, you know, what we could do,

  • to me sorta seemed a little bit like patchwork.

  • But I guess, it's all you can do.

  • You know, give some antibiotics, and vitamins,

  • uh, and that was pretty much it,

  • and some toothpaste and toothbrushes.

  • It's just, it's such a huge problem.

  • A- and it really, I guess, brought home the whole,

  • the social determinants of health,

  • and, and the number of factors

  • that are, you know, against these people,

  • like, the number of things they've had to deal with.

  • It was quite shocking for me, to be honest.

  • So.... [sighs]

  • You know, you need a lot more resources and infrastructure

  • to... to do something about this.

  • And there, there is, uh, one of the, uh, girls, um,

  • I believe Father Michael an- and the charity are, um,

  • uh, helping her to, to go to school.

  • And so she's studying to be an accountant,

  • which is great 'cause she had a young, a 16 month old.

  • So hopefully, you know, that, I mean, that factor of education

  • is, is a major determinant of health.

  • And hopefully she can help to get those people,

  • uh, into a better situation.

  • [Father Michael] If they could only, uh,

  • sacrifice that time to educate themselves

  • and, uh, invest in that, then, like, I always say,

  • they'll be working probably less and making more.

  • But often they, they, uh,

  • you know, that attraction to make an income now,

  • you know, like, that's why they pull their kids out of our schools often,

  • because they can feel like they can generate some kinda income,

  • and then that's more important than the idea

  • of, hey, you know, just wait a little bit,

  • and then you'll finish the school,

  • and you can get a better job, and break that cycle of poverty.

  • [Frankie] I just wanted to, uh, remind you of our pre-departure meeting.

  • And you had that little sim experience,

  • and I think that a lot of you decided to pull her out of school

  • and get her to work.

  • So when, when push came to shove, we were making those decisions as well.

  • [Lyndsay] Going to the fire house

  • and ambulance station was, um, a huge privilege.

  • I was very excited.

  • They welcomed us into their home, basically.

  • Um, and they were so proud to show us everything that they had.

  • They had the PowerPoint, they, everybody was there in uniform,

  • um, they're very proud to, to show us everything that they did

  • and how they run things.

  • Um, and then when they started talking about the landslide,

  • um, you could see some of them

  • were a little hesitant to tell their stories.

  • [Cameron] Hearing their motivations for why they're paramedics

  • and why they do the jobit's the adrenaline,

  • to be able to help people, to be the one first on the scene,

  • to be able to make the biggest difference or get things going.

  • Like, it's all the same reasons why we do it back home, too.

  • And then the fact that, on top of that,

  • that they volunteer their time, they don't get paid to do that,

  • and they work with such minimal equipment,

  • and yet, they have the same skill set and everything we do.

  • Like, the same rigorous education,

  • they go to one, two, three years of school

  • to do the same things we kinda do,

  • but they don't have the equipment to fully practice their entire scope.

  • It's just unbelievable.

  • And just being able to talk to them,

  • be with them, and keep in contact with them now,

  • it's an amazing experience.

  • And then, you know, going down the fire pole

  • and going on the fire truck was kinda cool, too.

  • [laughter]

  • [screams and laughter]

  • [man] Wow, that must have hurt!

  • [indistinct chatter]

  • [Harpreet Deol] The baby was not eating anything.

  • She was just having, like, little bit mother's milk,

  • and little bit water.

  • But she was really sick, so Frankie,

  • she took the, that baby right away to the, uh, Dr. Connie.

  • And she, when she saw her, she checked her,

  • she physically examined her,

  • and she can't hear anything on her chest

  • because it was from being, like, one and a half year.

  • So, she said there's no hope for her. Like, she's really sick.

  • And there's so many things going on.

  • Like, she's already having four kids at home,

  • and she can't leave them alone

  • back at home so that she can go to hospital.

  • First thing, if you're in Canada, the baby won't be this worse.

  • Like, if you got that worse, you gonna go to general hospital ICU,

  • and you don't have to worry about your health,

  • you don't have to worry about your money.

  • You know there's gonna be doctor and nurses around you to help.

  • It's really hard. It's, it's really hard.

  • And it's really hard to tell them that their baby's dying,

  • and you can't do anything about it.

  • It's hard.

  • [indistinct chatter]

  • [Frankie] Maybe a first time for many of you

  • to, uh, see a child that young, um, and that sick,

  • never having had healthcare,

  • and really impossible to receive the type of healthcare

  • that we would have in Canada, of course, or the United States.

  • So maybe you'd like to share, uh, what you, how you saw the situation?

  • [Dasom Kim] You have to be really flexible,

  • because if... if this were to happen in Canada,

  • like, you're gonna send the k- kids to the hospital, bigger hospital,

  • and then to the, like, ICU.

  • This wasn't a situation for her.

  • So, like, she has to think about

  • her other children who will be left in home.

  • [Father Michael] There's a, a limit to the medicine.

  • You know, we did everything we could humanly speaking, or medicine,

  • you know, what our resources, whatever,

  • then we had to give it to God's hands.

  • And that's what we're doing, giving it to God's hands.

  • And I think that's a good learning, our humility of, um,

  • you know, the science and the faith,

  • and, you know, we do what we can,

  • and then we have to give over to something greater than ourselves.

  • I- it was just very powerful on so many levels,

  • emotionally, spiritually, uh, professionally, I think, for you.

  • [Cameron] Well, I feel like we all have

  • the same goals in mindit's the patient.

  • We all communicate in similar ways.

  • It's just some of us communicate with them a little longer than others.

  • And our treatments may be a little different,

  • we have different tools in the box, but we all use our tools

  • to reach the same goal in the end.

  • And that's to help the patient. It's all about the patient.

  • Some cases, not all, there are times where you see cease resuscitation,

  • and then your patient becomes the family.

  • So, and in situations like that, we are there a lot longer.

  • So we're talking to the family, and then we give t-

  • we are very blunt and tell them that your family member has died.

  • And then you have to be there for them in whatever capacity you can be.

  • Um, they try and teach us in school how to go about it.

  • But, I mean, until you actually do it,

  • there's no real way to really know how to do it.

  • [Frankie] So I know that there's this common thread

  • throughout what we were talking about, and that's cultural humility.

  • And it was a concept that, maybe, some of you, before this trip,

  • hadn't heard about before.

  • You'd talked about cultural sensitivity, cultural competence in class.

  • Um, there's, you know, best practice guidelines on it.

  • But, um, the, the concept of humility,

  • um, hasn't really been presented in class.

  • So I'd like you to share a little bit about how you feel now

  • about that concept and perhaps, maybe, what you've learned about it,

  • um, and maybe give some examples.

  • [Ioana] I think, for me, the moment that cultural humility

  • kind of clicked was when we saw Melinda,

  • and, uh, just seeing

  • how well we came together as a group to care for her.

  • And, and just seeing everybody,

  • like, everybody that was in the room at that... at that moment,

  • I'm pretty sure that every single person came from, like, a different background,

  • different religion, different, like, age, different,

  • just we couldn't have been any more different,

  • but yet at that moment, we couldn't have been any more closer.

  • And I think that was the moment when I really, kind of, realized

  • what cultural humility is, and,

  • and what we were doing to take care of that for her and for her mom.

  • I think it's changed the way that I'm practicing def-

  • well, for sure it's definitely changed the way that I'm practicing.

  • [Harpreet] This, I can tell, yeah.

  • That was a frame of cultural humility.

  • We respected it, we really,

  • because that time, we brought a client, client centre care.

  • We were all focused on the, their needs.

  • Because if you think the same scenario here,

  • we will think, "Oh, that's not gonna work."

  • We should provide something, emergency help.

  • Do this, do that. So that we can help a life.

  • But I think we're... everybody tried to understand what's going on,

  • and we tried to help that lady on her level,

  • in... in her cultural way.

  • Because at the end,

  • she was satisfied that she'd got what she'd wanted.

  • [Lyndsay] I think we got to do some reading on the articles, and,

  • and, kinda, get, like, a textbook definition

  • of cultural humility, and sensitivity, and all that.

  • Um, but I think what we learned, what I learned from this trip

  • is just awareness of how we treat people,

  • um, in Guatemala and on my ride-out experiences here.

  • Just being aware that there's so many different types of people out there.

  • Um, whether it be because of religion,

  • or cultural beliefs, or language barriers,

  • just any kind of barrier to your patient communication,

  • we don't always, um, think about every aspect of things.

  • So I think it's just being aware

  • of what the patient wants from their care

  • and their understanding of, of the care that we're giving.

  • Um, I think it's just being careful

  • about what we're doing and what we're saying,

  • um, in our own practice here.

  • [Priscilla] You think, we're in Canada,

  • because we're in this box, this is the way we live.

  • And because in Guatemala, they're in this box,

  • this is the way they live.

  • And I think cultural humility is about taking away those borders

  • and uniting together but also respecting

  • that each person is different while together.

  • If that can [laughs] make sense.

  • [Jenna] I think I went into this trip

  • maybe being a little bit cocky about cultural humility.

  • Like, I think I've travelled lots. I was like, "I'll be fine with this."

  • Like, I'll just be, you know, extra sensitive.

  • And, um, [everyone laughs]

  • it was, it was even more challenging

  • than I, than I thought it would be.

  • There was times where I think

  • something I did was, like, misperceived by someone else.

  • It's something that I think I'll, sort of, keep in mind,

  • like, as to what you guys were saying,

  • back here, um, in my practice, like, as a paramedic here,

  • that I don't even think of it as, like, a cultural thing anymore.

  • It's just, like, in everythingit's, like, just humility,

  • like, just person to person, like, to everyone.

  • Um, so it's like everyone

  • that I assess on the ambulance now, I, sorta, keep in the back of my mind,

  • like, "How is what I'm doing making this person feel?"

  • Like, "How could, how could they be misperceiving this?"

  • Or, "How could they be perceiving this differently?

  • And it's something that I keep in my mind now.

  • [Ruth] Um, we went to, uh, so many different places,

  • and we saw so many little snippets of, um, Guatemalan culture.

  • And I remember, like, just thinking at the back of my mind,

  • like, when you go one place, you've gotta,

  • like, think about, like, "This isn't it."

  • You're gonna go somewhere and see something else,

  • and another aspect, and another layer.

  • And it's just so multidimensional and multilayered.

  • And then, every single place that we went,

  • no two groups and no two people were exactly the same.

  • Um, but I remember thinking, you know,

  • in order to really get this cultural humility thing down,

  • you've gotta be just committed to lifelong learning

  • and, um, lifelong reflection.

  • [music shifts to traditional Central American]

  • [music fades]

[music rises and falls for next minute and throughout]

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it