Where Does That Two-Lane Road Lead?

By Debbie Jefkin-Elnekave

I grew up in the rural community of DuBois, PA. Very few in DuBois ever ventured beyond our zip code, much less traveled abroad. My concept of world geography was four countries. There was America and the United States, which were somehow related, although I didn’t quite grasp the connection. There were also France and Europe. In my world, all other places somehow fell within the borders of those four “countries.”  I still believed this at the age of 16. Of course I never dared to dream of actually visiting any of those exotic places, but life has a way of taking us in interesting and unexpected directions.

When I was 17, the local Rotary Club selected me to be their exchange student, in spite of my geography impairment, and gave me the opportunity to live & study in Bolivia for a year.  At that time, Bolivia was the second poorest country in the world. That year was an indelible experience that would shape the rest of my life. To this day, the taste of Bolivian food and the sound of Bolivian music evoke treasured memories of friendship, adventure, exploration…and something vague, indescribable and transforming that I hadn’t yet put my finger on, but I would in years to come.

My exchange year was the first step of an amazing journey to the remotest corners of the furthest reaches of our incredible world, to discoveries about stone-age tribes and exotic and ancient cultures, where I have been privileged to work as a photojournalist and tour leader. But the most important discovery, the one that had the most profound impact on my life, was that the two-lane country road leading out of DuBois didn’t stop at the next town as I’d thought, but went on forever, and led to so many opportunities to make a difference in the world.

Doing what you love most to serve the world’s greatest needs

Having reaped years of benefits from my youth exchange experience, I decided that it was time to give back. I wanted to be a hands-on volunteer with a humanitarian organization, but where do you start? There are so many worthy causes. How could I have the most impact? Well, there’s a Chinese proverb that goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” My teacher appeared in the form of a woman who had recently been through the same search, so she identified with my dilemma. I remember her words to this day. She said, “Choose something where your greatest love and the world’s greatest needs come together.” What I love most is traveling, writing, photographing and speaking Spanish, so I started to volunteer as a translator and photojournalist on medical missions abroad. Appropriately, my first mission was in Bolivia, where that 2 lane country road had taken me many years earlier, and where I first learned about the opportunities to make a difference in the world.  On that particular mission we provided reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities from cleft lips & palates.

Through my volunteer experiences, I finally put my finger on those “vague, indescribable and transforming memories” of my youth exchange year. It all came together during my first Bolivia mission. We opened our triage clinic doors to a crush of humanity: desperate parents who had brought their deformed children, with the hope that he or she would be among the lucky ones eligible for surgery. I had never seen a single cleft lip, let alone 75 at once. It was overwhelming. At first they made me uncomfortable…maybe because I saw in them what I might have been. They were the reality that I had escaped because I was born, by chance, un-deformed. They reminded me of everything that I take for granted. 

But I didn’t have too long to ponder the cosmic order of things—why they were born deformed and I wasn’t—because a gentleman named Don Segundino walked in with his 12 year old son Juan. And for me, time stood still. Being familiar with Bolivia, I recognized from their style of clothing that they were many days away from home, and I knew immediately the grueling journey that they must have endured to reach our clinic.  In fact, they had walked for a day, then stood on the back of a truck for two days, to get to us. They couldn’t afford the $3 bus fare. I would soon learn how often the price of a bus fare stands between hope and resignation. 

Juan had been born with a bilateral cleft lip, and he’d spent the first twelve years of his life with a grotesque facial deformity. He was among the first patients to undergo surgery. The first time that I saw him after surgery, without a gaping hole in his face, I felt like I’d just witnessed a miracle. And there are no words to describe the look of gratitude on Don Segundino’s face the first time he saw his handsome son after surgery.  He approached me, addressed me with the Spanish title for Doctor (even though I’m not), and said, “Doctora, you have brought inexpressible joy to the people of Bolivia.” That’s when I realized that I had not only witnessed a miracle, but according to Don Segundino, I had helped to create that miracle. Just like the Grinch who stole Christmas, my heart grew three sizes.

Humanitarian service—It means the world to me.

I believe in humanitarian service because of the countless miracles that I’ve seen; because in my own small way, linking arms with others, I have helped to create those miracles. I believe in humanitarian service because it’s full of heroes where you probably wouldn’t think to look; people who give more than they take; people who are the best that the world has to offer. I believe in humanitarian service because as our world gets crazier, we need acts of kindness, compassion and humanity to remind us of the goodness that still surrounds us. I believe humanitarian service because a world without it would be unbearable. 

That year in Bolivia as an exchange student did, indeed, shape the course of my life. It gave me the opportunity, and instilled in me the curiosity and the courage, to venture beyond my rural hometown. I owe all the credit to the Rotary selection committee, anonymous now in my memory, because they helped me to begin my life’s journey. My life and work are, in no small measure, the fruition of Rotary’s belief in me. Through my service, I hope to give back some of what Rotary gave me, but I will never be able to sufficiently repay my gratitude, because it is endless. You could say, quite literally, that it has meant the world to me.