Students Back from Spring Break

Emily Merkle

Design Editor

Katelyn Fritz with a young girl in
Guatemala. Photo courtesy of Fritz.

As students grudgingly walked back into the High School on their first day back from break, Monday March 23, the students enrolled in the Advanced Nurse Aid class were welcomed back with a pleasant surprise.

Registered nurse Michelle Metts, had been a part of this class many times before to substitute, teach and to help at clinicals. On that special Monday however, she was a special guest. She gave the students a presentation on a medical mission trip she had went on only a few years ago called Medicine for Mali.

Metts, only a few other nursing students and another nurse traveled to Mali, Africa to set up a clinic in which people traveled for miles and waited in line for hours. They were only there a short 2 weeks, but in that time helped care for many people and made a large impact on the dangerous town, so dangerous that the program was shut down a couple of years after.

Senior Katelyn Fritz was also fortunate enough to travel and share her talents with people from Guatemala over her spring break. In only ten days of being there, Fritz describes her mission trip as life changing.

“During a mission trip, whether spiritually or not, you learn a lot about yourself and you think of the world in a different way. It’s hard to describe but when you see these people with far less than what you have with the biggest smiles on their faces it puts life into perspective,” Fritz said.

From the first day Fritz immersed herself into a new lifestyle by eating the traditional food. For breakfast one morning she said that she ate black beans, homemade tortillas and scrambled eggs. Fritz also was immersed in the new lifestyle- she saw trash all along the streets, huge piles of trash.

By helping out with simple tasks like rolling fabric and stacking velcro to bonding and taking care of young children, Fritz was able to help out in a big way and make memories that will last a lifetime.

“I highly recommend going internationally to a poverty stricken country, you’ll meet some of the happiest, most loving people and you'll realize it’s not about what you have but how you look at things,” said Fritz.