traveling man

This month has been a little bit unusual for me as I take a little
detour from my usual duties of doctoring, seeing patients in the
hospital, doing surgeries, teaching, etc. I've spent most days this
month away from the inpatient duties as we've been going out into the
community to get the community buy-in for nutrition outreaches and
educational programs (more to come soon), I was doing the music for our
SIM retreat, and now am going to head off for a little break with my
folks down to Botswana. Tomorrow I'm off with our executive director to
visit one of our referral hospitals to examine some monetary issues and
get perspective on the medical care they give there. It's good to leave
the hospital because it gives perspective on why I'm working there, but
it always brings up some guilty feelings as you know the people who are
left behind have to work harder to cover for your absence. No decisions
get made in that independent vacuum that we like to fool ourselves into
thinking exists in America; we can do what we like and the only one it
affects is us. That's an unusual perspective compared to most of the
majority world and one that most Zambians have a hard time understanding.