What Else to Do While Our World Goes Mad: Give Something Back
I was inspired to write this after reading Aarti’s article. Yes, there’s a balance between avoidance of all suffering by not engaging in the world, and taking it all on and becoming over-burdened and depressed.
I am reminded to be grateful, a term that maybe gets overused these days. Nonetheless, it is important. I have 2 gratitude buddies. When I remember to do it, we each send each other messages with 3 things we are grateful for that day. Some days it is pretty meager: “I woke up and got out of bed”; or “the sun was shining”. Other days are filled with abundance.
I am quite lonely and sad these days, having suffered a relationship breakup this year and abandonment and betrayal by a couple of my best friends. A couple more friends moved far away, and I live alone on the stormy NW coast. So what I have come up with is a plan to go to Africa. Yes, Africa.
In January I will go to Kenya to volunteer as a nurse for 3 months. This will hopefully cure me of some of my deepest navel-gazing, a chronic malady I keep relapsing from. I have always been a traveler; it is my drug of choice. There is nothing like being stripped of one’s culture (language, food, climate, creature comforts) to confront one’s utter solitude. At the same time, I find that I have more in common with other humans than I would have otherwise thought. We all go to the market place; we all love someone; we all work; we all eat; we laugh; we grieve.
The pandemic (which disrupted all of our lives) notwithstanding, time marches forward and I feel a sense of urgency about following through on my plan to go to Kenya. The details are still pending. While I’m hoping to make a tiny impact on the issues of trauma (intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and child abuse) I expect that I may learn more than I contribute. About profound poverty, childhood malnutrition, HIV, TB, and malaria. But also about the beauty of a culture I know very little about.
At a time when women’s rights are being severely threatened throughout the world, this feels more important than ever. My sponsoring NGO is Catholic Medical Mission Board. They “work in partnership globally to deliver locally sustainable quality health solutions to women, children, and their communities”. This is a goal of high integrity that I wholeheartedly endorse. It’s not about proselytizing or giving handouts. It’s about solidarity with the poor. Small acts of kindness offered to strangers go a long way.
I am inspired by the words of a medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer, who says:
“There is not a first world and a third world. There is only one world that we all share.”
If you would like to contribute to this work of this organization and help me get to Kenya, please visit: https://cmmb.org/supportpamela
I thank you for reading this, and for your own efforts at Gratitude!