~Subtitled: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village~
Dr. James Maskalyk was an young emergency room physician in
Toronto, Canada and no stranger to medical missions when he decided
to join Médicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).
" I wanted to see who I was when everything was taken away, when
all the insulation between the world and me was removed."
His six month assignment was to Sudan. Most of us think of Darfur
when we hear Sudan. Maskalyk went to Abyei, a small town on the
border between Southern and Northern Sudan. At the time he was
there, the town was 'neutral', but surrounded by military from both
sides. This book was born from a blog that Maskalyk started while
in Sudan to communicate with family and friends. Upon his return to
Canada, he found it difficult to assimilate back into his former
life , to not look back at Sudan.
"I went to Sudan, and am writing about it again, because I believe
that which separates action from inaction is the same thing that
separates my friends from Sudan. It is not indifference. It is
distance. May it all fall away."
Dr. Maskalyk has done a fantastic job in trying to minimize the
distance and bring Sudan closer. I literally could not put this
book down. It's one thing to read newspaper accounts of the
tragedies happening halfway around the world, but this book put an
intensely personal face on it. We are privy to Maskalyk's
enthusiasm and hopes for making a immediate difference when he
arrives. We are able to read of the sorrow, despair and toll the
situation takes on him personally, as well as the cost of war on
the people of Sudan. With our health care system in Canada, it is
difficult to read of the many children dying from malnutrition and
measles. He deals with gunshot wounds, rape and gun toting soldiers
invading the hospital. We meet the many other caring individuals
from other countries on MSF missions as well as Sudanese
individuals trying to make a difference in their country.
This book is soul baring in it's honesty and stark in reporting the
reality of a humanitarian effort in a third world country. I was
alternately saddened that this is life's reality for so many and
thankful that there are people like Dr. James Maskalyk in the
world. I encourge you to check out photos of his time in Abeyi as
well as the Six Months in Sudan website.
"Some of the work in repairing the world is grim: much of it is
not. Hope not only meets despair in equal measure, it drowns
it."
Newly released from Random House Canada, this is on my recommended
'must read' list. A definite 5/5.