Appreciation Finds No Language Barriers During Continuing Promise

With nine years as a Navy ophthalmic technician and a current assignment at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Martinez has conducted more eye exams than he can count. But rarely, he said, is the need as great -- or the service as welcomed -- as by patients like Alexis receiving medical and dental care during Continuing Promise 2009.

Volunteer interpreters abound here during Continuing Promise, clearly identified by the bright yellow T-shirts they wear both on the USNS Comfort hospital ship and at medical clinics and other operations providing services ashore. But as the Comfort crew and Haitian patients alike are coming to realize, appreciation has a universal language all its own.

“The best part of it is when all of a sudden, you put glasses on someone and they start looking all over the place with a big smile,” he said. “It’s really wonderful, and it makes you feel great.”

After leaving here April 19, Comfort and its crew will visit Antigua, Barbuda, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama, before returning to the United States.

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