Frustrating Things

I went to an informational meeting about missions and world relief at a church this past Sunday and left passionate and frustrated. Obviously the global issues talked about were frustrating, but something else was frustrating as well. Being an English major. I attended the meeting with two nurses on the hunt for information and resources to help our efforts in Uganda. We sat and listened to people talk, then asked complex questions, stunning a few people with our depth of knowledge. Asking questions about health care as a nurse seems entirely normal. When I was asked, "So you're a nurse too?" No, "What are you?" An English major. Chuckles, confused looks, immediately looks back to a nurse.

This is not encouraging in light of the reality I am graduating in six weeks and my major title holds little credibility in the field I would like to work. I know, experience is just as important, there are ways to do the work with English, but I think part of it too is I am about to graduate and finally know what I want to study. I can't apply for many internships because they require me to be a student and so moving to even the lowest level of job requires a level of knowledge and experience. I am studying so hard on everything not school related. Reading medical anthropology text books, books on disease inception and prevention, and any relevant news article I can find. But no one asks you to list your extracurricular research or how your experiences combined with knowledge are relevant on a job applications. So then we never get to the part of how I was in Uganda and encountered extremely sick village due to  not having access to clean water. No one asks how they are, no one knows about the one who has died since I returned. 

The kicker is also I wouldn't have discovered what I was passionate about without having gone through undergrad the way I did. I am a little stuck, I know where and what I want to work with and hold a degree that does not qualify me. What's next? Grad school and middle of the road jobs to get through? Apply a million places I am technically unqualified for but hope my story and heart shines through? I'm doing a little of both. And working on a project where I am qualified enough: Uganda. 

I will return to Uganda for a few weeks in August, working again with the medical clinic. This year we are employing health education initiatives. The clinic has become part of my every day life, endlessly researching and trying to learn since returning lasts September, talking to people, praying for people. My team and I composed a report to send to the World Health Organization about a very sick village. We have not heard back. How do we help? We aren't on the ground right now, no hospital or doctor is close enough to the village to help research, and trying to get a water test from the area seems like a puzzle to be cracked. I've contacted different people and organizations, running into the issue again of being an English major with no credentials. I don't have the means to bring clean water to the sick village. And clean water could help so many health issues we are only able to treat. 

 In Princess Diaries Lily Moskovitz is imploring Mia to say yes to being a princess because in the words of Lily:

I just found out that my cable show only reaches 12 people.
Wanting to rock the world but having zip power like me, that's a nightmare.
But you, wow.
I mean...
Mia: Okay, what is so wow?
Lilly: Wow is having the power to affect change, make people listen.
How many teenagers have that power?
What more of a miracle do you want?

Becoming a princess would be a good solution, but unlikely to happen. According to UN 1.8 billion people are drinking contaminated water by fecal matter. 1 in 9 people (some sources say 1 in 10, either way it's not ok) world wide do not have accessed to an improved source of drinking water and 1 in 3 lack improved sanitation. These are the things I want to fight for and to work for. Until then, I'll be working on the Uganda project, fighting against the silence on the other end of the line I receive whenever the question of who I am and what I do comes up. I believe everyone has a right to clean water and medical care, so I'll keep going in this "endless defeat" as Dr. Paul Farmer describes it, knowing there will be many losses and the world on a large scale will not transform quickly, but it is the little victories that make it worth it. 

In honor of World Water Day, if you would like to donate to my trip to Uganda, click here 

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