Thuy's Flying Solo

Written: Wednesday, December 17, 2014

I had a formal screening interview with a recruiter from PIH yesterday (Tuesday).

Long story short, I need more experience working in these kinds of emergency medical relief situations before they'll consider bringing me on board. Sucks, but understandable.

Thuy will be flying to West Africa alone.

This is quite the uncomfortable feeling.

In a few weeks, Thuy will board a plane and travel to another part of the country for two weeks of Ebola treatment training, and then she will fly to wherever she is assigned in West Africa and live there for four weeks to treat those infected with Ebola and help the locals learn how to treat patients on their own so that PIH can eventually hand over operations to them. During this time, Thuy will be putting herself at some level of increased health and personal risk, and I won't be around to be with her. Furthermore, we're under the impression that internet and telecommunication aren't all that reliable, so I may be in the dark on her well being and general whereabouts, which means that I won't get to help her decompress from whatever she had to endure during her hectic and potentially emotionally trying workday.

That said, despite all of these risks and concerns, despite whatever hesitation I have about her going alone, I know that this kind of work is her dream. It's what she's about, it's who she is as a person. This PIH deployment is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her, and it's also the ideal stepping stone towards her end goal, Doctors Without Borders.

I'm behind her all the way, and I'm excited that she gets to take one giant step closer towards a very special medical career goal.