"...I have to be completely honest and say that I am kinda shocked by this country. My pre-conceptions of it are a repressive government, subdued people, etc... I flew in, prepared for a quite airport, men with guns, etc... what I got instead was a beautiful airport--grand and spacious--easy&friendly immigration officials, and the sight of family reunions, tears of joy and choirs of laughter in the arrivals hall. Walking around later on in the evening, I am again shocked and in awe that this former colonial city, with crumbling British built buildings evidence of former glory days, is so open, lively, energetic..."
"Today, I also started traveling alone again. I am staying at one of the Lonely Planet's recommended guest houses in the old city, but I am the only backpacker here! This will get a bit of getting use to since the last month, I have spent with people."Nostalgia fills me as I re-read my travel journal, and think of how different life was a mere 365 days ago. Today, in 2011, consisted of leading a case study in which the patient had an inherited autoimmune disorder (similar to HIV, except this in case it was genetic), followed by doing work to plan for my upcoming summer work in Vietnam on nutrition, meeting with a faculty mentor, lunch with classmates where the discussion centered around teenagers having sex at the age of 14 and the cultural and societal reasons for why this is the case, a bit of studying, dinner at school, and then home to continue more work.
Last year, the movement consisted of going between cities, countries and continents; in contrast, this year, movement consists of mentally transitioning from the intricacies of the body's beautifully integrated immune system into the macro level issues of how aid money is being used to address malnutrition among those living with HIV in Vietnam (my summer research project), to the casual conversations questioning whether or not promoting contraceptives in schools will promote or delay the age of first intercourse. Perhaps the feeling of movement, whether physical or mental, is a necessary function for humans. Maybe this is why strange, gut wrenching, often uncomfortable feelings arises in us when we sense that we are at a standstill as the world moves around us. Is it our nature or our nurture that makes us believe and want to be in a constant state of movement? Are we pre-maturely equating movement to progress?
1 comment:
You know I'm reading! Why are you making the two synonymous? Or are you just asking if they are? I think this is DAVID. I do not think it is human. There are many, many people are a-ok with no movement and with the way things are. They don't care about what's outside of their stagnant (not meant pejoratively) lives and are quite satisfied with what IS. There are plenty of people, some of them the same, who don't give a lick about progress because if it ain't broken, you don't gotta fix it. There are some of us who simply will never be this way. And that, my friend, is why we like each other.
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