Transitions

It sometimes seems surreal how quickly you can move from one place to another, from one culture to another, from one way of looking at life to another. I have been meaning to make several more entries on this blog about my experiences in Nigeria and about what I learned there. I also have over 500 pictures I've been meaning to sort through and post for you to see, both on previous entries and new ones. My goal is to work on that this week, so check back periodically.

I've been back at work in Massachusetts for a week already. The week before that took me from the Faith Alive clinic in Jos...

... to an 8-hour layover in Amsterdam and visits to the Van Gogh and Reichsmuseum...

... to hiking and camping at 12,000 feet in Medicine Bow National Forest, WY...

... time with family and a beautiful Colorado sunrise with purple mountains on the way to the airport...

... back to my apartment in Williamstown and its humid summer/fall weather...

... and my desk in the Overland office.
Talk about culture shock. It's been a much harder adjustment than I was expecting (although I don't know why this should surprise me, given how reluctant I was to leave Nigeria). Motivation in most areas of life is eluding me right now and making me feel frustrated. No small part of my discomfort with where I am is probably thanks to my rereading of this book:

If you haven't read it, do. As soon as possible. Every time I open it I feel like I am wasting my life because I am not headed to Haiti or Africa or India, or to Geneva, to WHO headquarters, armed with an MD and a resolve to save the lives of those who have no hope of saving themselves and very little hope from the outside world-- the outside world that can afford health care and medication, that takes sanitation and food for granted; the outside world that, in an era of historically unprecedented levels of wealth, tells poor people and those trying to provide medical services to them that they are working with "limited resources", that they can't expect first-world treatment in a third-world setting because local culture, beliefs and behaviors prevent effective cures, that health programs in the areas that have the most desperate need have to be "cost-effective" and "sustainable."