I Volunteered for What?!

Quasivolunteers (the chronically underpaid with do-gooder jobs), along with true volunteers, are everywhere in Uganda. Among this crowd, of which I will count myself included, the processing of 1.Coming here; 2.Being here; and 3.Going back; is an immediate and often prolonged (perhaps unending) internal/external discussion.

While at RSPH @ Emory, it seemed to me that there would always be a significant minority of good-hearted people who would go abroad and return disheartened and disillusioned. (A similar phenomena occurs with bright-eyed students entering medical school and transforming into cynical professionals). Is this avoidable? It appears we are reliant upon the good will of certain persons to "volunteer" for the altruistic jobs of an unequal world. This does not seem to be adequate as the needs still massively trump resources--human and financial. It is not, in the words of development folk, "sustainable."

It could be because most of us are NOT saints (shocking!). To paraphrase, this group of individuals has not perfected goodness, but they have seen what it means to be a good person and to want to strive for it. Recognizing that this cadre still finds the following occasionally attractive and sometimes irresistable: hot showers, tv, money, etc., . . . relative luxuries in an external environment of poverty, humanizes these humanists. And, brings us closer to a workable reality and, therefore, sustainability.

So, how to approach this issue. There do appear to be some good resources out there. And, I would refer back to the Global Health Corps previously noted on this blog as a good idea whose time has come, yet due to lack of political will has not.
Photo: A different type of California Salon. Taken in Ghana 1999.