“My friend!”
Lidya usually call Denice
and me like this. And I call her “Mama!”
or “My friend!” as well. So many
times, she also calls me “Jacky Chen!”
Well, I tell her I am way more handsome than him, but she is so stubborn to
say, “No, you are Jacky Chen!” When I
was in Sierra Leone, I had not thought that World Vision staff could be my
intimate friends. It does not mean that Sierra Leone staff were not friendly,
but it was true that there was some kind of invisible wall between staff and
fellow. Maybe, as a fellow, I was confused myself that who I was and what I was
doing when I first arrived in World Vision office in Africa. It was somewhat
hard to reach all staff and get friendly with them because I had heard many
times from staff that I was not a staff, but a fellow/ or volunteer. But I
realized later that having a good relationship with staff does not actually
rely on the level of position; it depends on how much I appreciate what I was
given and how much I can have a dignified and confident attitude no matter what
the situation I was placed in. However, as times went by, I have got used to
what was going on in the office, how staff were working, and what system the
organization had. Once I came to Tanzania, I knew how to quickly adjust to
spend my time in the new World Vision office. Tanzanian staff are like my
family, so it is not strange for me to say them, “Hello, my friend!” Lidya could be my boss because she is Mundemu
ADP Development Facilitator for AIM-Health Programme, and I am doing mid-term
review for this Programme. Or, I could be a third-party contractor from World
Vision International who has to evaluate how it goes objectively, so no one in
Tanzania would be my boss. Regardless of all complicated human relationship
made by formal positions, I am glad that I become assimilate with people in
World Vision and be a friend with them.
I do appreciate my friends
because they say hello to me and ask after my health. They were also receiving
urgent Ebola news all over the world and asking me via Facebook and Kakaotalk
if I was okay. Yes, I am fine! To be honest, I sometimes have experienced depressed
moments; but I am so encouraged by their messages and motivated to keep writing
daily blog to share my Africa experience with them. Stella, who is in Canada,
called me today and we talked almost for an hour. I do not normally talk with
someone by phone for a long, at most 5 minutes, but she and I are of the same
age and have the same interest. I was happy to hear she is preparing for
applying to Master of Public Health (MPH) schools and medical schools. So we
had many things to talk about.
“Come to Africa to join the digging a well
project!”
I do not know how to join
this project yet, but I said that in jest because it could be encouragement for
her to come to Africa. She would like to be here in Africa someday. We would
not know if we can meet in Africa, or meet in Baltimore, but I am thankful
enough to have my friend who concerns about me and feel sympathy for what I
feel in Africa.
I think living in Africa is
an invaluable experience. I have the privilege of working with people in many
different African countries. I am working as a Global Health Fellow from World
Vision International, but contributing to maternal, newborn, and child health
(MNCH) projects is not the only thing that I can experience. Enjoying new
weather, new culture, and new food with new people are natural concomitant of
living in Africa during fellowship periods. Africa is still unknown and
mysterious world to some people; many friends wish to go to Africa, but they
are not readily eager to get on a plane for Africa. One of the biggest reasons that
people are hesitating to set their foot on Africa might be out of fear; we have
always seen the extreme cases about Africa through the mass media, such as serious
famine and cruel pirates in Somalia, brutal civil war in South Sudan, scary
HIV/AIDS in South Africa, unforeseen suicide bombing in Nigeria, many unheard
diseases and plague, killing heat in the desert, and rare ugly worms. Those
risk are all true, but I would want to say those are just part of Africa. You
cannot imagine how peaceful Tanzania is. Everything that you need is available
here (adding some exaggeration…), and you can enjoy your Sunday afternoon
breathing in fresh and cool air.
I do not want my life in
Africa would be only for my individual experience. I think public health, the
study what I am doing, is all about services to prevent disease, infection, and
injury and purse our well-beings; I consider myself that I work in some sort of
the service industry. That was how my blog was born, and I hope those who have
not been to Africa will have indirect experience activities in Africa by
enjoying my blog. I would like to see that a little misunderstanding between
Africa and us will soon be straightened out, and people will shortly thereafter
realize living in Africa is worth doing. I do not still know how long I can
stay in Africa and update daily blog, but the most important thing for me is
that I will do come back here in Africa even if I leave in the end of this year
or next May. Of course, sometimes, I am anxious that what will happen to me
while I am in Africa. Boarding on airplane to move from one African country to
another was terrifying because I worried so much about plane crash. I was not
sure whether airplane in Africa would have the same safety as those I have got
aboard, such as Korean Air or Delta Air. I thought for a long time if Kenya
Airways carry me safely from Sierra Leone to Tanzania. My impression about
African airplane turned out to be opposite to my anxiety; airplane was
airplane, no matter where it was made of.
I have to admit that
adjusting to live in Africa must be challenging. Even though our stereotype of
Africa is quite far from being the whole truth about Africa, something that
makes me impatient is still always lurking around in every place. Now I feel
that being in the office at late night hearing mosquitoes’ endless loving
sounds near my ears and big mice’s rustling sounds from somewhere in the hole are
not joyful. Like this, from the small to the big, something keeps me from
working with high efficiency. Nobody understood why I stick in the office even
on Sunday, but it is the only way for me to compensate for daily-lost hours in
the result of struggling time with new environments. I suddenly miss my friends! But I am expecting a
wonderful time in Morogoro from tomorrow. There will be a World Vision Tanzania
(WVT)’s big national retreat event for a week in Morogoro! All WVT staff, more
than 500 people from WVT, will gather in the same place to review this year’s
activities, plan next year’s budget, having tribe’s cultural night, and playing
all sorts of sports game. It would be a great opportunity to promote mutual
friendship among all WVT staff. My
friends in South Korea and the U.S. were too far away from me right now,
but I can meet my NEW friends at once
in Morogoro. I would say from tomorrow, “Hello, my friends! It is good to see you!”
 |
| My friends in the U.S. Stella and I are somewhere in this picture. |
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