After 11 hours of traveling from Beaver to the Haitian/Dominican border by bus and plane, Beaver Area junior Danica Purtell with Sts. Peter and Paul church arrived in a town four hours outside of Santo Domingo on a mission trip.

For those of you unaware of what a mission trip really is (I was pretty oblivious until Purtell gave me some more information), it's an organized community service effort usually led by a church group.

"Since my mother had already been going on the trips, as she is a doctor, I just decided to come along two years ago, and I haven’t looked back since!"

This trip was Purtell’s second and her group was mainly involved with setting up a clinic for the residents of the community. Two doctors were responsible for assessing patients and prescribing medications while two registered nurses distributed medications and kept vitals of the patients.

The registered nurses also helped Purtell with her role on the the team, which was keeping vitals as well as measuring the medications needed.

But after two of the nurses contracted Covid, Purtell and her mother worked alone for a few days helping around 80 patients a day.

In her downtime not working at the clinic, Purtell enjoyed the Caribbean nation’s beautiful scenery.

"The jungle mountains that divide Haiti and the Dominican Republic are beautiful and the sky is almost always clear."

Purtell also spoke of how many stray dogs and cats roamed the streets along with hungry cattle and donkeys who feasted on any scraps they could get.

However, Purtell also emphasized that it's important not to use mission trips as a way to boast about yourself. She even was hesitant to let us write this article because of that, but it's hard to not to see how her mission's activities helped this village who was in need of help.

Despite the long journey and challenging environment, Purtell encourages others to pursue a mission trip.

"It really makes you appreciate everything you have back home, but you should always remember that you are there to serve others and you should never forget just how fortunate we all really are,” she said.