Sick

I got sick last week. On my back, high fever, “if I don’t leave this exact position the world will be ok” sick. One day, a lot of caring friends, and a handful of medications and I was back in fighting form. But I was thinking about what it took me to get there. There was the Advil and antibiotic that I just had to grab from under my bed. The friend I sent to the market to buy crackers and soda. The fan that ran when we had electricity.  The running water in the bathroom next door that I could use to cool down. Let’s not even talk about the fact that I live with 80 nurses or nurses-to-be who could do basically anything I needed.

The extent of my privilege sneaks up on me some days. Most days, it is the obvious things. I have a computer and an iPhone. I have a car at home. There was never a question of if I could go to school. I have traveled. But as I was curled up in a miserable ball on my bed, wishing for air conditioning and  my mom, I recognized my privilege once again. Everyday at the hospital, I hear about patients who can’t afford medicines, can’t afford lab tests, can’t afford food to take their medications with. It is exhausting and could quickly clear out both my bank account and emotional reserves. So you build up walls and it stops affecting you so much. Great for getting through the everyday. But it certainly does stop you from seeing the human element: until you find yourself faced with it.

As I make my way through the ever-increasing stack of development literature I want to read, there is a lot of discussion of basic rights: people deserve clean drinking water, food, shelter medications. After last week, I want to make this list more explicit. People deserve crackers and Sprite when their stomach is sick. They deserve Tylenol and the occasional dose of Ciproflaxcin. They deserve water to cool their sweating brows and electricity to run a fan by. And they deserve a bed to curl up on.

Women

There was an awesome NYTimes Op ed two weeks ago entitled “What’s So Scary about Smart Girls.” For those of you who don’t feel like reading the article or who have already exceeded your 10 free reads for the month, here’s the summary (but you should read it). Kristof writes in response to the kidnapping of 200 highly educated girls in Nigeria. He says that in this heinous, unthinkable act, there is a high degree of rationality on the part of the fanatics. Educated women, in effect, cause change. We can see countless examples around the world and the reasons are fairly logical. Educated women mean fewer children, both because women are more educated about sexual health and because, frankly, they are busy. Fewer children means more investment in each child, ramping up the percentage of education and ramping down disease in generations to come. Secondarily, by educating women, you are doubling your workforce and adding brilliant new minds to the national discussion. Where would we be as a country if Hilary Clinton, Barbara Walters, and Marie Curie could not read.

I had an extremely privileged education and readily recognize that even in the USA, there is a lot to be done to educate all people, but especially minorities. We need more women in STEM and in upper level management. But let’s come to Haiti for a second.

Compared to Nigeria, Haiti is lucky on two fronts. One, it is a fairly liberal country. In no way are women equal to men: even if a woman works, she is expected to cook, clean, care for the children, and do laundry, all of which here, with limited technology, create a greater than full time job. Domestic abuse is a huge and undiscussed problem. In this strongly hierarchical structure, it can be hard for a woman to get her opinion heard. I could go on. But increasingly, girls and boys are educated side by side with almost the same level of interest in sending them to school (remember that you must pay for almost all education in Haiti.) Secondarily, Haiti is not a war zone. Their resources have been depleted and no one is trying to take their land. Haiti does not have a military and does not need one. They can invest what resources they have in other places. A huge advantage.

Still, it makes me feel good that I teach at a school that is 90% women. Where women’s rights are frequently discussed and how to improve women’s health and women’s positions in society are areas of concern. I live with some incredibly smart girls. And the fanatics should be terrified of them: they will change the world. 

I'm a Movie Star!

Remember when the film crew came back in November? Here is the video! It is featuring the Volunteers in Mission (they didn't like the name "Older Adult Service Corps") but both Ashley and I make cameo appearances.

I am the one wearing hot pink and making jazz hands around 1:40. So, you know, the usual. 

Oops! Apparently there is a problem with the video! Here is a link to the original! 

Prise des Coiffes

On Saturday we celebrated the capping ceremony of our 1st year students. For them, it marks their successful completion of the very difficult first semester and their ability to begin working with patients. I was so proud of the students---many of them had struggled and worked very hard and were just so happy to have this chance to be recognized. Their friends and family were there and it was a spectacular event. 

Pre-Capping!

Alumni capped the new students 

Me with a gathering of the first year after the ceremony!

Some upperclassmen and alumni.