Standing on the Border: A Chad Diary
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DAY 4
Working for Change in Chad: Wednesday March 14, 2007 12:45 pm
ABECHE — We have arrived back in Abeche. This feels luxurious when compared to Goz Bieda—we have running water all day and air conditioning in some of the rooms! Most importantly we have internet access... how strange it is to feel so connected to someone so far away through an email.
We saw the Doctors without Borders’ clinic yesterday and it was a strange experience for me to see the physician taking care of the IDP’s. I am an emergency room physician in Boston in addition to my public health work with Oxfam America and once contemplated working for Doctors without Borders. Watching the physician there was a mix of emotions, a sense of longing and relief at the same time. While what they do is vital and important for me, in a way it feels like a drop in the ocean. There are so many problems here and I admire the courage of this one doctor working in this one area, trying to change the situation one community at a time.
I was suddenly exhausted watching this doctor while thinking how easily that might have been me. It is hard to process all the information at once while reacting on an emotional level as well and thinking about decisions I’ve made. I watched the impact of one doctor amidst the complicated political situation, the massive number of people who need help, staring into hopelessness and resilience all at the same time.
Yes, there are problems in Chad that are tied to Sudan but many of the issues this doctor and Oxfam program workers face every day must be should be seen for what they are—problems in Chad. No qualifications and sidenotes about Darfur. Yes, Chad exists in a specific location that has affected it, however it should be viewed as its own entity with its own history, values, and set of intricate political systems.
In the past week we have seen water provided to thousands of people in a place so dry the days run together and so hot the nights are unsleepable. We have meet with UN officials, NGOs, Sultans, and village chiefs and one thing is clear to me: there is no political will to remedy the situation.
What do you do when your government does not want or is unable to take care of you and your coping mechanism have been threatened or exhausted? What would I do? How long would I last out here, hauling water from kilometers away, taking care of the children (many many children), cooking, cleaning, going outside the camp for firewood to sell in the market so I can provide food for my family?
When that context seems impossible to me I look at the other one...how would I have lasted if I had chosen the other path—if I had become a doctor based out in the field?
