Recovering...
I'm at work today after a 4 day break, 2 hospital visits, 6 different types of medication and several very nervous people anxiously awaiting news...
I scratched my cornea several days ago. Not quite sure how, however the prevailing theory is that some dirt or dust was trapped between my contacts and my eye, then caught on the upper part of my right cornea.
The pain was almost intolerable.
My concern at the time was my location; I was in a training facility outside of the city, with no medical centre close by.
My supervisor was luckily headed back to the city the next day, so we took the staff bus and made a detour at the hospital several other AYADs had frequented. The problem was diagnosed, medication was prescribed, and I was sent to "sleep it off".
4 days later, I'm back. My eye is still a bit red, and my eyelid has swollen, but the tear has healed, and I am assure in 7 days the remaining medication will bring the swelling down and return my eye to normal.
Not being able to do anything at all really allows you to take in your surroundings... and go mad with boredom of course, but that's a different topic...
Some observations in the last 4 days; the roosters here begin singing at 3am... isn't that a bit off? I've lived close to roosters before, in several different countries, and I always remembered them singing at dawn, not 2 and a half hours before the crack of light!
This city can seem at times to be a bustling metropolis, and at other times an overcrowded village. During the day the noise is as incessant as it is loud; from vendors yelling in the streets, to rickshaw bells and car horns asserting their right to the road, to building and moving and fixing and breaking sounds from every angle drowning out whatever possible noise may be coming from your own apartment, you are constantly reminded of how many people surround you at any one time.
And yet, in the middle of the night, the security guard across the street is the lone sound to be heard; he sings from dusk until dawn, recently adding a radio to accopany his voice as he guards the gate to one of the innumerable apartment complexes in this city.
So that brings me to being back at work... and what a mountain of work awaits.
I have mentioned previously my debate as to whether this line of work is really where my passion lies, or whether I have been chasing an ideal, misconceived or not, based on my experiences around the world due to my parent's work. After all, I'm the guy who went to law school on monday, journalism school on tuesday, worked at Starbucks on wednesday, played basketball on thursday, sold suits on friday, worked at a hip hop club on saturday, and worked with youth at risk on sunday... all while juggling a hundred other things at the same time... I find, in hindsight, that I have thrown my attention and passions into so many different things, and in the process almost burned out so many times, that despite always aiming to get into this line of work, I began doubting whether I could be successful or even be interested in development work...
Being in Bangladesh has answered that question for me. The work is difficult, challenging, seemingly endless... yet the results are tangible, the effects profound, the challenges and barriers complex and, perhaps because of their complexity, so very important to meet and hopefully overcome.
It's nice to finally affirm my passion for this work has been warranted.
I scratched my cornea several days ago. Not quite sure how, however the prevailing theory is that some dirt or dust was trapped between my contacts and my eye, then caught on the upper part of my right cornea.
The pain was almost intolerable.
My concern at the time was my location; I was in a training facility outside of the city, with no medical centre close by.
My supervisor was luckily headed back to the city the next day, so we took the staff bus and made a detour at the hospital several other AYADs had frequented. The problem was diagnosed, medication was prescribed, and I was sent to "sleep it off".
4 days later, I'm back. My eye is still a bit red, and my eyelid has swollen, but the tear has healed, and I am assure in 7 days the remaining medication will bring the swelling down and return my eye to normal.
Not being able to do anything at all really allows you to take in your surroundings... and go mad with boredom of course, but that's a different topic...
Some observations in the last 4 days; the roosters here begin singing at 3am... isn't that a bit off? I've lived close to roosters before, in several different countries, and I always remembered them singing at dawn, not 2 and a half hours before the crack of light!
This city can seem at times to be a bustling metropolis, and at other times an overcrowded village. During the day the noise is as incessant as it is loud; from vendors yelling in the streets, to rickshaw bells and car horns asserting their right to the road, to building and moving and fixing and breaking sounds from every angle drowning out whatever possible noise may be coming from your own apartment, you are constantly reminded of how many people surround you at any one time.
And yet, in the middle of the night, the security guard across the street is the lone sound to be heard; he sings from dusk until dawn, recently adding a radio to accopany his voice as he guards the gate to one of the innumerable apartment complexes in this city.
So that brings me to being back at work... and what a mountain of work awaits.
I have mentioned previously my debate as to whether this line of work is really where my passion lies, or whether I have been chasing an ideal, misconceived or not, based on my experiences around the world due to my parent's work. After all, I'm the guy who went to law school on monday, journalism school on tuesday, worked at Starbucks on wednesday, played basketball on thursday, sold suits on friday, worked at a hip hop club on saturday, and worked with youth at risk on sunday... all while juggling a hundred other things at the same time... I find, in hindsight, that I have thrown my attention and passions into so many different things, and in the process almost burned out so many times, that despite always aiming to get into this line of work, I began doubting whether I could be successful or even be interested in development work...
Being in Bangladesh has answered that question for me. The work is difficult, challenging, seemingly endless... yet the results are tangible, the effects profound, the challenges and barriers complex and, perhaps because of their complexity, so very important to meet and hopefully overcome.
It's nice to finally affirm my passion for this work has been warranted.
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