Life Is Calling... Haiti: Pati De

Life Is Calling is a series of reader submissions. It is an attempt to allow people to tell their personal stories and experiences about life as a recent college graduate conquering the real world. If you would like to submit a story to this series, shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment with your e-mail. Today’s post is the second of two by Zach, who is currently volunteering at a clinic in Haiti. You can find his first post here.

Life is Calling...

Homebound

Now that I am home, I find myself thinking about the people I left behind. And truly, I feel as though I have left them behind. I sit here at my desk, surrounded by items that I have gone without for 7 weeks. I have electricity and air conditioning. More importantly, I have food and water.  All of these things are in abundance and I feel so spoiled.  

You know how as a child you think the world stops if you are not in the immediate vicinity? Obviously the world keeps turning, and everybody keeps living, but it takes you a while to get out of that self-centered world view. I'm not a child anymore, and I know that in the hours I spend writing this, my friends in Haiti are looking for food, for water, for shelter, for money, for a child. Maybe during a keystroke one of them is reaching for a cup of water. Or during a phone call maybe one of the girls is putting her hair into a new style. They are living their lives in parallel with mine but without me next to them.

I know that eventually my mind will forget certain details about my time in Haiti. Faces will be blurred, events will become distorted. But the feelings associated with the memories of those faces, those events, will manifest themselves in my life as it passes. Out of all the senses, the sense of smell is the one most connected with memory. I know that soon enough, I will smell an avocado and be brought back to when I shared them for breakfast. I will smell burning rubber and be brought back to Cite Soleil. I will smell....something, and be transported back to the foot of the dead boy's bed. 

That’s the thing with memories, you never know what will trigger the ones buried in your subconscious.  

While at the orphanage, I read Mother Teresa's biography. In her first iteration of the Missionaries of Charity, she wanted her Sisters in Christ to live without any benefit of society, like the diseased, dying, and malnourished that they would be helping. She eventually realized that this was not possible. In order to help the distressed thousands, she and her organization would have to be at their very best. They would have to provide for themselves first, and then provide for the poorest of the poor. However, they wouldn't overindulge in any aspect of life, out of respect for those who had nothing.  

I've realized that even though I have more than those living in Haiti or throughout the world, I can choose to use what I have for their benefit. I won't overindulge out of respect for those that have nothing. I will not withhold assistance when it costs me nothing, I will be as altruistic as possible. So to do those things, I think I will become a Doctor. It might take me a while, but after this....I think it'll be worth the time spent.