Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dr. Harry Chen, the former commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health and a board certified emergency physician. He and his wife Anne Lezak are Peace Corps volunteers in Uganda.
[L]ast week was Peace Corps Week; as Peace Corps volunteers, it seemed fitting for us to assess how we’re measuring up to the three Peace Corps goals, which in summary are:
Help people of interested countries to meet their need for trained men and women.
Promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
Promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
We are in Southwestern Uganda for a year, me in the Global Health Service Partnership helping to bring the specialty of emergency medicine to Uganda at Mbarara University of Science & Technology and my spouse in Peace Corps Response, helping to foster sustainability for Mobile Hospice Mbarara.
What could be a better investment or more needed than emergency medicine with the potential to intervene in one out of two deaths here in Uganda, and palliative care for Ugandans with HIV/AIDS and/or cancer. Importantly, it’s not about what we ourselves can do but how we work with our local colleagues to make change happen, both while we’re here and after we leave.
While I make my way through the sometimes dense curriculum with the five pioneer post-graduate medical trainees, it’s inspiring to know that I’m training the first and future leaders in emergency care in Uganda. It’s my job to help them understand the art of the possible and integrate it with the harsh reality of medical care here: scarce and inconsistent resources, including common medications, gloves, X-rays, blood supply; challenging staff to patient ratios; significant delays for basic emergency services which translate into poor outcomes.
Turning to the second goal, I’d check that off too. Our days are spent immersed in the local culture, constantly explaining our different perspective and experiences to the warm and welcoming Ugandans we meet.
Last week, I was joined in my run through back roads by a gaggle of girls heading home after school. Clearly, they were amused by the gray-haired muzungu out for his evening jog; I was happy to have them along as we chatted about their school day.
My wife has delighted in sharing cross-cultural baking secrets: gifting her muffin tin to a young colleague after they made muffins together at her home and inviting a trio of nurses to our place for cookie baking. She is also a founding member of an informal, al fresco aerobics group, led first by a visiting Swedish medical student, who on her departure, handed over the reins to a couple of young Ugandans in the group who are now the trusted instructors.
If you’re reading this, you’re helping us with the third goal. Co-writing a blog is another strategy that will bear fruit while we’re here and, we hope, once we return home. We’re finding that sharing the trials, tribulations and triumphs of our time here through our blog builds resilience, not to mention a repertoire of stories for years to come.
Part of our learning here is that change will come slowly, in fits and starts. As I’ve come to appreciate, it requires leadership and knowledge to forge the way forward and maintain an optimistic, yet realistic stance in the face of sometimes apparently insurmountable systemic barriers. Those we’ve met here are in equal parts proud of the singular beauty and traditions of their country and openly frustrated by the very real obstacles to sustained progress.
Amidst the difficulties of what seem to us random power outages, dirt roads cratered with holes and rocks and stubborn poverty that still plagues much of the country, there are glimmers of hope aplenty. We are buoyed by the grit and determination of the Ugandan emergency physicians-to-be, by the caring and commitment my wife witnesses every day among the palliative care team, and by the fierce dedication to quality education by parents who sacrifice much to secure a bright future for their children.
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps has over 230,000 current and returned volunteers. Though it took us several decades longer than the typical 20-something Peace Corps volunteer, we are grateful for the opportunity to answer JFK’s optimistic call to service in such an extraordinary way.
In a time characterized by an inward focus and “America First,” rhetoric, we are proud – and fortunate – to be able to buck the trend and serve both our country and our temporary home in Uganda.
