When I was attending chiropractic school I had the opportunity to travel to Fiji to adjust school children in the outlying villages of Nandi. The villages on the outskirts of Nandi are breathtakingly beautiful. The school children in these areas were sharply dressed in school uniforms and always smiling. At school they were happy and well behaved, but many of them had modest living situations compared to the average American family. They lived in shacks with dirt floors where electricity and running water were considered luxuries. Many of the children had no shoes, and many had to worry about where their next meal would come from. Despite these constant obstacles in their lives, these were some of the happiest children I have ever seen. I was moved by how grateful they were to just be seen by a student doctor. I couldn’t help but to think of the children I had recently seen in the student clinic and how much they took having their basic need (and so much more) being met for granted.
In the only mission site where we saw adult patients, I met a fisherman. He complained about suffering from heavy arms. I examined both of his arms thoroughly searching for the cause and found nothing. I explained the best I could to him that his arms were healthy and I was going to adjust his spine because it held all the nerves that made his body work. Believe me, this was no easy task due to the language barrier, and the fact that I was a student who was still pretty green at talking to real live patients. After his adjustment he told me his arms no longer felt heavy and that he hadn’t felt so good in a very long time. He gave me a hug, thanked me, and left in a hurry. I realized later that he was rushing out to bring his family back to see me. They waited two hours in line so they could be helped by an adjustment.
My trip to Fiji will always remind me to be thankful for simply being healthy, and that being happy comes from the simplest things in life.
In Health,
Dr. Loni
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