Posted 8/23/01
NB grad helps give the gift of sight through mission trip to Guatemala
By Jason Sileo
The list of North Branch-area young adults who have contributed their time and space in their hearts for the sake of others this summer grew by one recently, as Cristina Olseen returned home following a 10-day mission trip to Guatemala with a Brooklyn Park church group.
Cristina, a 2000 North Branch High School graduate, spent most of her time in Huehuetenango, a city of about 30,000 located in west-central Guatemala, as an interpreter in a makeshift eye clinic there.
She and 17 others managed to assist while professionals examined and provided eye exams and glasses to 225 Guatemalans in four days of the trip ó people of all ages who otherwise would not have been able to afford or even procure any optometry attention at all.
ìIt was amazing to see all the ways that people were helped,î Cristina said of her experience abroad. ìEvery moment was really, really special.î
Just being able to communicate with people of a different culture, she said, was more than a small blessing.
The trip was sponsored by Edinbrook Church in Brooklyn Park. Cristina found out about the trip through a friend of her fatherís and was invited along as a Spanish-speaking interpreter.
Cristina took four years of Spanish in high school and said she learned a great deal more just by interacting with the Guatemalans as they were admitted to the eye clinic and presented some of their medical history.
It was Cristinaís job to translate during these times as well as between patient and doctor during the actual examinations. Dave Sawyer, optometrist with the Fairview Lakes Clinic in North Branch, provided the eye examinations.
She said the beauty of the country she visited was offset somewhat by the pervasive poverty among its people, and that the good she and her group did there this summer ìhas changed my life.î
Cristina, preparing for her sophomore year at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, is now more-seriously considering a Spanish major. Sheís also thinking about a medical career in optometry.
ìIf I do become a doctor, of any type, Iíd like to eventually go to all the countries in Central America and help people the way [Sawyer] helped people,î she said. ìWhen we work together as a group like that, it really helps people.î
She said she was ìnot happy to leaveî Guatemala when the time came, and that she is hoping to return there to see some of her new friends over the New Yearís holiday this winter.
She also hopes to return on a similar mission next summer, perhaps with a group she plans to organize from her own Trinity Lutheran Church in North Branch.
Cristina is the daughter of Rick and Bambi Olseen of Harris. Her younger sister, Becki, will be a senior at NBHS this fall and is hoping to follow in Cristinaís foot steps by taking a mission trip of her own to South Africa in the near future.