We Meet Again

We Meet Again

The Return of the Blog; The Blog, Part II; The Blog Redux; Dr. Pete Goes to Burundi (Again); Burundi on my Mind; Burundi is my Beat; A Long Day and a Long Night and Another Long Day and Yet Another Long Night’s Journey into Burundi; Leave it to Peter; Out of and Back into Africa

Yes, the blog is back. Perhaps you wondered if it would ever make its reappearance. Or perhaps you have not wondered. Perhaps the previous blog entries were of no interest to you. Your interest or disinterest notwithstanding, I am still proud to announce that “Dr. Pete Goes to Burundi” is now ready to make its reappearance in the blog-o-sphere.

I know it’s been a while since you read of my adventures in that small, profoundly poor, landlocked, sub-Saharan African country that goes by the name of Burundi. Yes, Burundi, a country unknown to most Americans; a country for which the term “profoundly poor” does not do it justice. Burundi has the unwanted distinction of being the country with the world’s lowest per capita income. Considering the abysmal living conditions of the majority of the world’s countries, that is quite a claim to fame, or perhaps notoriety would be a better word.

I believe that there are five essentials for any quality of life. Those five would be 1) adequate food; 2) clean, potable water; 3) adequate clothing; 4) adequate housing; and, 5) access to medical care. The vast majority of Burundians are zero for five on those essentials. They literally have nothing. It was to that land of nothing that I was returning. It was also that land of nothing that I fell in love with a year ago when I took my first medical sabbatical here. I return now to do what will be the second medical sabbatical. It is my hope that this second sabbatical will be merely the next in the series of annual sabbaticals to Burundi.

I am, as I write this, a little more than 24 hours from my departure from L.A., the capitol of glitz and glamor. Two days later, after a journey that will take me from L.A. to Miami, followed by an overnight flight to London, which will subsequently be followed by a ten hour flight to Nairobi; then an overnight stay in Nairobi, and, on the morning of May 20^th, a relatively short flight from Nairobi to Bujumbura, the capitol (and only city) of Burundi. It is then that I will be reunited with my Burundian friends and colleagues.

I return to Burundi with a different mind-set than the one I had last year. The trip last year was the great adventure; the proverbial voyage into the unknown; the abandonment of all that was familiar for all that was unfamiliar. This year is still a great adventure, but it is far more a voyage into the known. Last year, I was filled with trepidation in the days leading up to my departure. I wrote, “I have been doing this pediatrician thing for over twenty-five years, yet I still wonder how my skills and my expertise will translate to a medical, as well as a geographical setting that will be completely unfamiliar to me. Let's face it: I have never treated malnutrition, nor malaria, nor disseminated tuberculosis. Is it hubris on my part to think that I can do what I do in a completely different environment, facing completely different diseases than I have ever faced before? Facing children so sick that I may not know what to do? As I get precariously close to my day of reckoning, my fears and anxiety grow exponentially. But, yet, I go forward, and I will encounter what is to be encountered.”

I did go forward last year, and I did encounter what had to be encountered. The experience of being a doctor in a completely foreign setting was initially a very steep learning curve. I was lucky, because I had superb physicians at the clinic that helped guide me up the slippery slope of that learning curve. It was they who helped me learn how to treat diseases that had been unknown to to me: diseases like malnutrition and malaria. But I also found out something about myself. I could take myself out of my medical comfort zone. I could do things that I did not know that I was capable of doing. It is said that an old dog cannot learn new tricks. My experience in Burundi last year would argue otherwise, for this old doctor dog did learn new medical tricks.

I return now ready to face the same challenges that I faced last year, knowing full well that there will be many new challenges this year. I will encounter, if only because this is Africa, medical surprises and shocks. I am sure that there will be many occasions that I will be astonished by what I see. Yet, for me, that is the beauty of doing what I am about to do. Once again, I will challenge myself as both a human being and a doctor. I will be doing what I love to do in a setting where my professional skills will be tested on a daily basis. How fortunate I am that I am able to do that.

Last year, as you probably know, I came to Burundi and to the clinic by myself. No other doctors went with me. However, this year, I have the pleasure of being accompanied by two of the finest and most dedicated physicians I know. Their motto is, have stethoscope, will travel. They are normally shy, but I persuaded them to pose for these pictures prior to departure. They wear their stethoscopes quite well, don't you think?