Whooped, I is. Got about 5 hours of restless sleep last night and worked my first full day in the clinic today. So, this one's gonna be brief...
Was a pretty uneventful day, all things considered. The clinic was busy early and slow later in the day, which I was told was par for the course. Mostly I just observed. At this point I'm trying to acclimate myself and figure out how they do things here. One thing this one day has shown me, they do it a lot different than I'm used to. I hope beyond hope that these differences will create opportunities for me to learn and to teach. Really, right now I'm just trying to figure out how best I can help.
One item of note: One of the doctors today took a great interest in speaking with me. He was very interested in what my perceptions were of the clinic, and of the American medical system. He struck me as a very intelligent and compassionate man, and I enjoyed our talk tremendously. At one point he began telling me about where he was raised. A small town about 100km South of Kabul (the name escapes my tired mind). Apparently, it's currently an area of tremendous unrest. As he put it, "Every day guns. And helicopters fill the sky". For some time there was one doctor in the town, but he had recently bailed due to the violence. This doctor's family then called him and asked that he take over the former doc's clinic. Just last week he started a schedule of going down for two days every week. When I told him that many of my friends and family in America were concerned about me coming to Kabul, and that some had even told me they thought I was crazy, he responded by saying that his people in Kabul tell him he's crazy for going to back to his home town. He confessed he feels when he goes he has a 50/50 chance of coming back to Kabul alive. He talked of his obligation to help, and about his faith and his dedication to do the right thing by his conscience for his fellow man. This hit me like a RPG square in the heart. Humbling it was, simply humbling. I told the clinic secretary how brave I thought this doctor to be. The secretary said, "All Afghans are brave, we have to be". Humbling, simply humbling.
More, more, more. This stuff is amazing.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff Ward. I of course, have really only seen Afghanistan from a military perspective, although I have been able to interact with the locals on some level, in the bazaars we have on base, and where they employ local workers around base in various capacities. At first when I touched down in Kandahar, I did feel as if I was on Mars - it was so foreign to me, but it was not until that evening when we had a rocket attack on the base that I realized there really is a war going on here and that you should never let your guard down. Still looking into the possibility of bringing you out to Bagram to do a gig for the troops... I will be in touch.. stay safe bro.. J
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