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Bar News - July 25, 2003 Mission Work Sends NH Attorney to Third-World Countries By: Lisa Segal ATTORNEY FRED POTTER didn’t spend his New Year’s Eve 2003 eating decadent food at a posh restaurant, sheltered from the bitter cold of a New Hampshire winter’s night. Instead, he was roasting hot dogs over an open flame on a typically hot night in a remote tribal village in Guinea, West Africa. Potter, an attorney with Sulloway & Hollis, Concord, and a former NHBA president (1986-87) was one of a team of 12 individuals participating in a Christian Medical Missions trip to provide eye and dental care to residents in and around Hamdalaye Village in Guinea. The trip, sponsored by Grace Bible Fellowship, took place Dec. 26, 2002-Jan. 11, 2003, and is one of several such trips Potter has made in the past few years. Hamdalaye Village is a small, remote village where residents live in mud huts with thatched roofs, without running water or electricity. According to Potter, one of the many challenges the team faced during its mission was the low level of hygiene and the lack of medical care in this area of the world. Potter said that despite the primitive circumstances, the group’s living conditions and the support of the medical mission by the local government were "very favorable." Mission members stayed in a secure facility that had running water and electricity (from a generator), and decent facilities were provided for the eye and dental examinations. "We were given reasonably good places to set up, so we didn’t have to move all the time. There weren’t a lot of logistics to worry about," said Potter. As a result, he said, the group effectively served a large number of people. Over 800 patients received eye or dental care during the mission. During the dental care component, the group did cleanings and, when necessary, extractions. A native Guinean who was a dental trainee helped with the extractions and learned about techniques not available in his country. There was also an education component during which the Guineans were taught dental hygiene and given free toothbrushes. Potter helped tend to the generators and spit basins, did some teeth cleaning, provided dental assistance and sterilized instruments, and serving as videographer and gopher. He said the locals’ dental health "was probably the worst we’d seen" in any of the third-world countries the missions have serviced; many patients required extractions. The vision services consisted of doing cataract screenings and fitting patients for glasses. Mission volunteers were trained in fitting donated used eyeglasses, using rough screening methods. People with more advanced vision needs or who required surgery were referred to a local mission group that provides more extensive medical services. Potter’s role was to assist during the vision services and to again serve as gopher and videographer. In addition to providing vision and dental services and education, the medical mission also trained an individual from New Tribes Mission (which has a permanent mission in the village) in eyeglass fittings and left its remaining supply of eyeglasses. The group charged 50 cents for each of the eye and dental care visits, and the money was given to the local clinic for supplies. This was Potter’s third trip with Christian Medical Missions, which was formed by Concord dentist Dr. Mark McDonald to provide health, hygiene and evangelical services and is sponsored in large part by Grace Bible Fellowship. Potter has also been part of two previous missions to the Dominican Republic, where Christian Medical Missions has established a permanent mission in a drug barrio. Potter’s wife, Mertie, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and educator, and his 21-year-old daughter, Joy, a student at Wheaton College, were also part of the mission to Guinea. Mertie was a team leader. Potter said that he has encountered many surprises during his mission work. The severe lack in third-world countries of things we take for granted, such as medical care, was one surprise. For example, the hospital in the Guinean town of Bocay for the first time saw both the mother and baby going home alive after a cesarean section, Potter said. "It’s not because the hospitals and clinics don’t try, but their techniques and tools are outdated, and they don’t have the resources they need." Despite its lack of many basic necessities, the generosity of the Hamdalaye Village community also surprised Potter. During a welcome ceremony, the mission members were each given a soda – a luxury that costs a week’s wages for some villagers. "That was astounding for me," said Potter. "There are a lot of natural resources in the area, so the villagers have food and clothing, but anything that is purchased is a monumental expense. This was an obvious way they used to say, ‘Thank you.’" Potter said he became involved in Christian Medical Missions "because of my love for Jesus Christ. A way of expressing that love is by showing loving, caring concern for others," he said. "These missions also help us better understand other cultures. The need for love and compassion is universal." Potter went on to say that every mission he goes on – whether against the backdrop of a West African village or of a drug barrio in the Dominican Republic – is "life-changing." "At first, the children in that drug barrio threw pebbles at us. To watch the change as those children were cared for…they became dramatically different. The most exciting thing occurs when a young person’s life is changed. Every trip I go on I find life-changing and life-authenticating." Potter, whose law practice focuses on commercial entity mergers and acquisitions and class-action plaintiffs’ work for non-standard industry practices, said his legal skills do come into play in his mission work. "My ability to think outside the box, to go into a situation with the sense that things can get done is helpful. Problem-solving, team-building, communication, listening, observational and negotiation skills are all honed by practicing law, and are all enormously helpful and useful during my mission work," he said. Potter said he plans to go on additional trips with Christian Medical Missions. "There is a need. I plan to make this work a regular part of my life," he said.
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