Back Stateside

dear friends,
I have returned safely to the land of apple pie and red, white, and blue! I confess I have missed my homeland in many ways, and in many other ways I long to be back in my adopted land. One month in Bangladesh is like living six. So much has happened, so many decisions have been made, so many adventures had.
Returning home always takes on a surreal quality to me. I drive down roads empty of carts, animals, pedestrians, and even cars! I live surrounded by air conditioning, hot water in the shower, and cold water in the frig. I have a car at my disposal, and I can fix anything my heart desires to eat. Sometimes I feel like I move through the day like a stranger in a strange land.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. On saturday, I took the chance to shadow a friend in the pediatric intensive care unit at a local hospital. I drove up to a parking space, and strolled casually into the lobby of the hospital. surrounding me was a kindly receptionist, a gift shop, and even mood lighting. In the pediatric ward, each child had an individual, climate controlled room, and the halls were decorated with colorful paintings of wild animals. For 6 patients there were perhaps 4 nurses, a doctor, and a respiratory therapist. The workers sat and chatted casually as I sat at the desk.
I am reminded of Dhaka Children's Hospital, the single rooms filled with twenty or thirty children, the short-staffed nurses scurrying from patient to patient, the doctors working with next to no technology in order to treat their charges. And I am reminded of the dying child with end stage tuberculosis, laying motionless in one of these beds with vomited blood caking her face. Her disease was highly contagious, and I feared for all the other children sitting around her. When I asked the Bangladeshi doctor about this, he told me that they have no way to isolate the child. When I asked the American doc, he told me that he would be breaking the law for not isolating this child!
What are we to do? Are we to blame the Bangladeshi system? Are we to villify the americans for being fat cats with too much money to spend on fancy health care, and for not helping their poor neighbors? the truth is that there is no single finger to point, no single factor to blame. Poverty is an incredibly complex entity, full of moral ambiguities. All we can do, as individuals and as organizations, is to try to help where we can, and to leave the rest to the work of God. At least this is how I get through my days. I have enjoyed writing these posts. Thanks to all who have read them, and I hope you all are blessed.
Signing off
Richie