Moral Dilemma

16 Aug 06
I felt a little guilty coming home from Loki and hearing more reports of little children dying of malaria. It’s just tearing through this area right now and every day I hear of another little one dying.

And here I was, I just tweaked an ankle and an arm, and I had the resources to be flown out. It’s been a struggle for me, accepting that. I don’t think I have yet.

I hate seeing them sick. There is some kind of cold going around, too. All the kids have runny noses and these deep coughs that just make my body hurt for them. And their parents don’t take them to the clinic. They take them to the witchdoctor. The last resort is the clinic.

It seems so backward to me, the Westerner.

An AIM doc told us the story once of all these African children dying in hospitals of things as simple as dehydration and diarrhea. Handfuls of them would die everyday in the hospital he was working at. And all they needed was rehydration drinks and a little attention. Ugh.