Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • May 31, 2017 7A
Davis family inspired to ‘come and see’
Marie and Curt Davis hopes tales of their many international relief trips will teach others how they can help
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Marie Davis
has completed 49 relief trips
to countries facing crisis —
many times in the company
of her husband, Curt Davis,
and other family members.
Marie and Curt, of Dallas,
returned from Uganda in
early May after spending a
month working in clinics at
the United Nations’ Nakevale
Refugee Center. They made
the trip as part of a Medical
Teams International contin-
gent. MTI is a Christian glob-
al health organization.
Marie, a nurse, and Curt,
an electrician, offer skills
and knowledge to desperate
people in needy countries
while they are there, but, in
their opinion, that isn’t the
most critical thing they
share.
“People have said to me
before, ‘Why would you
spend $5,000 through an or-
ganization to send you and
your husband to stay a
month in Uganda?’” she
said. “‘Why don’t you just
give them the money and let
them care of that?’”
Her answer:“Mother Tere-
sa had a saying, ‘Come and
see.’”
They are following that
directive, but they are also
being the eyes for people
who can’t take the time to
do what they do.
“Come and see gives us an
insight into what it is that we
need to tell people,” Marie
said. “Plus, I’m a nurse and
he’s an electrician, so we can
do some work. But better
than that, we come and see.
See what they have to go
through. What they have to
live through. What is it that
they need.”
She said when they return,
their goal is to inspire others
to care, to give, or even more
fundamentally, to be aware
of what is happening half a
world away.
“We talk to people and ask
them if they know anything
about South Sudan and the
refugees,” Curt said. “A lot of
them don’t know anything.”
Marie said that the prob-
lem can seem so over-
whelming that people don’t
know where to begin to help,
so they tune out.
“Unfortunately, through
no fault except for our own,
we become weary of pover-
ty,” Marie said. “MTI is an
avenue through which they
can do something about it.”
Uganda’s refugee camps
take in thousands of
MARIE DAVIS / for the Itemizer-Observer
MARIE DAVIS/for the Itemizer-Observer
Curt Davis with a group of refugees he met at the camp in Southwestern Uganda. An
electrician, Kurt had time to talk with people while he waited for his project approval.
Marie Davis with patients at the United Nations Nakevale
Refugee Center in Uganda during her visit in April.
refugees per week fleeing
drought, violence or war.
While there, the couple
met people from South
Sudan, Congo, Somalia,
Rwanda, Tanzania and other
neighboring countries.
Many of the refugees are
from South Sudan, which
Marie said is experiencing
both drought and violence
over land. A new country,
after Sudan split due to a
civil war, it is struggling
mightily in its infancy.
“It’s just been absolute
hell,” Marie said.
Uganda takes the refugees
in exchange for payment
from the U.N. The U.N. owns
the clinics, and provides
medicine, vaccines, supplies,
food and material for hous-
ing in the camp.
“Though not enough, be-
cause it is impossible to plan
for the number of refugees
coming over,” Marie said.
The food and supplies are
basic. Homes are made from
mud brick with tarps for
roofs.
“They throw sticks and old
tires, whatever they have to
keep their roof from blowing
away,” Curt said. The U.N.
gives the people supplies to
grow gardens to feed them-
selves, but without irrigation,
that is a seasonal solution.
“They are trying to en-
courage these folks to grow
their own crops and do what
they can to feed themselves,
which is a good thing, espe-
cially when you are talking
about long-term,” Marie
said. “But they are always
hungry.”
Malnutrition means they
struggle to off disease, most
often malaria, even with the
efforts to distribute mosqui-
to nets. Sometimes people
get so hungry, they sell the
nets for food.
Curt became the team’s
“diplomat” because the elec-
trical project he was as-
signed didn’t get cleared. He
met a young man named
Grace, who fled Congo with
his mother and two little sis-
ters.
He said someone accused
his father of working with
the resistance, and the gov-
ernment sent people to kill
him. They also set fire to a
building Grace and his uncle
were working in, killing his
uncle. Grace escaped, but
suffered burns in the fire.
Grace said his family is
grateful for a welcoming
country.
“Grace said, ‘At least we
have life,’” Curt said. “If they
didn’t live there, they would
be somewhere where their
life would be in danger all
the time.”
Marie said MTI workers
try promote peace and im-
prove the lives of women in
the countries they work in.
That is starting with surgeries
and treatments for obstetric
fistulas, caused by trauma
during child birth that can
lead to incontinence.
“There’s a social stigma.
These women are not only
outcast by their husbands
and their families, but by all
of society,” Maria said. “They
are like lepers.”
Marie said many of the
medical professionals work-
ing in the clinics — from
many countries and reli-
gions — shun the differences
that could separate them in
favor of accomplishing a col-
lective goal: to heal.
Marie said she worked
with a young Muslim who
specializes in pediatrics. The
two made a connection and
stay in contact.
“Here I am a Christian
working with a Muslim —
and didn’t even know it for
the first week — and what a
compassionate good, good
man,” Marie said. “Many of
us in health care have con-
cluded that we can create
peace because we seem to
have the compassion and
understanding and the ac-
ceptance of all people, pretty
much. I would sure like see
that continue.”
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