City of Joy
Meet our Team: Robeson Tinsley (South Carolina)
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As a young child, Robeson became interested in needy people around the world and went on his first mission trip to Mexico when he was twelve. This trip served to kindle the flame of interest in helping underserved people and four years later, Robeson enjoyed the opportunity of spending an entire summer in India where he
fell in love with the Indian people. On this particular trip to India, he worked to build an orphanage just outside of Vijayawada, A.P. along with thirty other teenagers and 6 adults. In spite of the 120-degree heat and the �discomforts� of living in tents, Robeson's heart was stolen by the people there and the land of India. Prior to this trip he had never had any intention of going on to become a doctor, but when he saw a need that he could fill in service to the Indian people, he embraced the idea of medicine as a service to others (something Robeson feels many doctors in the U.S. have forgotten) and from then on Robeson's  path was set.

After graduating from high school he enrolled at Erskine College to begin work on a degree in Biology accompanied by study in philosophy and religion. Since then he has enjoyed the opportunity to serve on several medical teams in very different roles. In 2000, he traveled with a team of doctors and nurses to Lircay, a small village 12,000 ft. above sea level in the Andes of Peru. There, he served as circulating nurse for cataract surgeries as well as assisting with eye exams and glasses prescriptions. The next summer he accompanied a similar team under the same leadership to work for several weeks among the most needy people in the slums of Nairobi and the Kenyan bush country. While there, he served as the team�s lab technician and they treated malaria, TB, and typhoid among other things.

At the end of that summer, Robeson was able to finally return to India. This time he worked in a small hospital outside of Kota in Rajasthan. This hospital was formed to treat the orphans in a nearby orphanage (sometimes as many as 900 orphans reside there) but also opens its doors to those who need medical care from the surrounding communities. While there he assisted the general surgeon in several of his cases during the two weeks and spent the rest of his time working either in the lab or as a nurse tech in the children�s ward and keeping the children company. Back in the States he also pursued employment in a hospital and has enjoyed working for two summers as a transporter for several departments. While this job is considered to be one of the lowest offered, it afforded him the opportunity of constant patient contact which gives Robeson real joy and allows him the privilege of causing a sickly or depressed patient�s face to light up with a smile � an experience that he truly treasures.

As Robeson continued to pursue a medical path, he also continued to study India; it�s languages and cultures. The highlight of this study came in the fall of 2001 when he spent a semester of his junior year studying Indian history and culture and Hindi (as well as Comparative Physiology and British culture) at Oxford University. While he will always have more to learn about India (its land and its people) he will always be thankful for such an accelerated period of study.

While Robeson enjoyed the opportunity to serve with many teams in many ways, and while his ultimate desire is to serve some of the neediest of the Indian people as a medical doctor, he realizes that he is not yet a medical student (although he will begin attending medical school in the fall of 2003). With this understanding, he is more than willing to serve in any way that he can in the City of Joy project. His dedication and desire to help is truly outstanding.
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