An Adventure That Never Ends...

01/27/09

Three Weeks Later

I struggled for a bit, deciding whether to write this last post as soon as I got back in an attempt to preserve the Ugandan “purity” of the blog or to wait. I decided to wait for one selfish reason. I felt that if I closed the book the moment I returned, then I would mentally view the trip forever as an isolated adventure that I was privileged to experience at one point in my life. I wanted to make sure it meshed with my life in the “real world,” which, even after a trip like this, I need to continually remind and convince myself lends millions of real people only mud huts and underfunded clinics. I needed to ensure that the “hungry kids in Africa” remained real in my mind, with voices and laughs and cries that I heard not in a video but while holding their hands and speaking, laughing, and crying with them. So I apologize for the delay and I hope I didn’t lose anyone, but that is why I waited.
As promised, I’ll tell you about how this whole adventure came to be. This past summer, my roommate and I decided we should go to Africa and see some true, simple, non-“computerized” medicine. We are both EMT’s and figured that we could probably even do a lot more there than would be allowed here. Make your own ethical judgments but, in all honesty, that is how it began. We had a small tie to Rwanda and looked into that for a bit, making some contacts and slowly planning the trip. It was not materializing quickly enough, however, and it was discouraging when we realized that we would most likely have to cover all the costs ourselves. We gave up completely around Rosh Hashana, mid-October, and I was pretty frustrated. I was in Teaneck for the weekend and went to visit some friends at Rutgers on Saturday night. (I’m telling you the details because it is unbelievable how it all came to be.) I had planned to just go to NYC on Sunday morning from Rutgers but I forgot something in Teaneck so I went back to an empty house on Saturday night. I woke up early, called a cab, but when I was told it would cost $15 to go to the bus station to catch a $3.40 bus, I decided I would walk. So, carrying my stuff, I began the two-mile walk. As luck would have it, it began to rain…hard. I got soaked but made it to the bus station. Unfortunately, every other bus turns down the street right before the bus station at which I waited and I watched the bus I wanted to board turn and drive away. Soaking wet, I waited for the next bus which came 25 minutes later. When I got on, I paid with my wet money and started walking toward the back of the bus when an older woman dropped her coat into the aisle in front of me. I bent down to pick it up and as I handed it to her, she slapped me across the face for touching her coat. Great. I said “you’re welcome” and continued toward the back of the bus. We obviously hit a lot of traffic on the way in and then I boarded a subway…in the wrong direction. I switched trains and finally got off at 116th St. I was hoping to get to friends at Columbia on 121st but, of course, I walked south until I saw the street sign at 111th St. I turned around and started walking the half-mile (it had stopped raining by now) to 121st. That is when I ran into Maital, who was on her phone accomplishing something (on a Sunday morning) which I have come to believe is normal for her. I waited until she finished her conversation and, having not seen one another in about 5 years, we quickly caught up. She had just returned from…Uganda! The whole trip sort of bloomed from there. She helped set everything up over the next couple of weeks and it all worked out! Weeks later, about a month before the trip, thinking of how that day played out is what convinced me to buy that ticket on KLM. It was hard to argue anything other than that I was “supposed” to go on this trip.
People have asked me how the trip was. The answer is…fantastic. Scary. Real. Absolutely eye-opening. I can’t yet say I learned too much because I think it was more like being accepted to some sort of educational program; the trip was just the tour and I decided I’d like to attend. Now I can begin to learn from it. One thing I about which I might have gained some knowledge, however, is meaning. I’m no expert, but from what I’ve experienced, I am pretty confident about this. I think that there are two ways for pieces of one’s life to acquire meaning. One way is to remove oneself from whatever it is that has meaning. The lack of electricity, toilets, food on-demand, family, friends, adequate medical care – these things all gained so much more significance when I didn’t have them. But that was the obvious and easy way to assign meaning to parts of my life. The more difficult but, by far, the more rewarding and “meaningful” way of infusing meaning into an aspect of one’s life is to throw oneself entirely into a challenge. I’ve heard versions of that advice before but until I was in the dry sun, riding the back of a bicycle from village to village, and then thinking about it all to a degree which made me unable to sleep at night and consequently staying up until 4am working on a grant, I had no idea what it meant. To envelop yourself completely with a goal, and even better, a goal that is beneficial for you and others, is absolutely the most rewarding, uplifting, and energetic feeling one can attain. The more drained I became each night there, the more energy I began with the next day. I definitely look forward to finding another experience into which I can bury myself and gain so much more (Rwanda anyone?) That’s the only advice I feel comfortable giving over to the public.
To wrap it all up, I want to say thank you. Writing this blog allowed me to experience this whole trip twice over, once in doing and once in telling. To those of you who read it, thank you. Your comments, questions and related (and unrelated) anecdotes have made this experience that much more special. But please, if you feel at all inspired, don’t just look for another experience to read about. Please, please…make your own. Throw yourself into it entirely and, I promise, you will never regret it.

-jtr

Feel free to email me at jrothwax@gmail.com. And lastly, to my parents, thank you.