FGCU basketball player helps treat others during Peru mission trip

Michael Duax is new to the Florida Gulf Coast men’s basketball roster. He transfered to FGCU from Northern Iowa. Duax hasn’t been on campus long, but he’s already bought into the team’s philosophy of “routine of greatness.”

“Every day we did some sort of workout,” Duax recalled. “Then after that it’s just meeting new people cause you’re not just changing basketball teams. You’re changing like everything about your life.”

In an offseason of change, one thing remained the same for Duax, his desire to go into the medical field. That was reaffirmed when Duax went on a mission trip with International Medical Relief.

“We went into the Amazon jungle and set up set up the building we were in the clinic,” Duax recalled. “And we had doctors and dentists and a bunch of different physicians and we just kind of treated patients.”

Duax started by shadowing, but then he shared that, “they actually ran out of translators. They had professional translators. So I kind of turned into the translator for a few doctors. I’m not 100 percent fluent but I was able to get by what they were saying. That was actually better for me than shadowing because I was able to work on my Spanish.”

Duax said the trip was a life changing experience because, “we heard a hundred different God blesses and even one time we were all done and someone asked what’s the cost? So they were expecting a price. But it was a mission trip we did it no price. They started to tear up. They were so appreciative. So when I saw all that appreciation, that’s when I realized that this is why I’m here.”