J'arrive, j'arrive!

Just a quick note to report that I have safely arrived at the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Lambarene as of two hours ago! I should win a medal for best arrival at a third world airport ever as well. If you have ever flown into an airport in a third world country, you know it can be a little bit of a circus with crazy crowds, people grabbing at your luggage, long and inexplicable lines at passport control and customs, and missed connections with people who are meeting you. With all of this in mind, I flew into Libreville, the capitol city of Gabon, fully cognizant that I needed a back-up plan and a back-up back-up plan. There were a few things going in my favor for this to be a successful trip. I had flown Lufthansa all the way from Chicago to Libreville and it was comforting to arrive at the unfamiliar in a familiar way (hyper-efficient German sandwich and coca-cola dealing stewardesses with a mixed bag of international travelers). Also I had made good contact with the directrice of the hospital two weeks ago to confirm my arrival and send my picture. And my flight was only delayed by 30 minutes. Still I had some butterflies in my stomach. Imagine my grand surprise when passport control passed mostly uneventfully, my bags were waiting for me circling the carousel, no one looked at me twice through customs, and two people from Albert Schweitzer were waiting for me literally outside the door of customs. Parfait! We went to a nearby hotel to spend the night, took much of the next day (today) buying provisions in town for the hospital, and took to the road at 3pm arriving at the hospital by 7pm. I'll have much to say by way of background on Gabon, Schweitzer, medical practice here, but for now the most important thing is: I'm here. I'm safe. I have the whole weekend to figure out how things work around here, the lay of the land, and where I have to go to work on Monday. A toute a l'heure mes amis.

Background

Hello friends and family and potential internet travelers,

My name is Sophie and I recently finished my third year of medical school at the University if Illinois in Chicago. In a few days, I will be on a plane to Gabon for 3 months of internship in pediatrics at Hopital Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene, Gabon. I plan to write about my time as a way to keep in touch with all the good people in my life, to reflect publicly about medicine as service, and to give people a sense of what practicing medicine in the developing world is like on a day to day basis. I leave on July 28th for Africa, part of a multi-day journey that will land me in Lambarene about 56 hours after I take off from Chicago. Right now, I am excited and apprehensive. Excited because I see this as the capstone of my medical education and because I have never been to Africa before. Apprehensive because I have spent the last months studying for Step 2 and finishing third year of medical school so I do not feel prepared for this. I understand that there is no way to fully prepare, but I have not even cracked my guidebooks. Oh well, that's one of the good things about having flights scheduled, you can't push something back, you just have to get in there and start going. If you are interested in following my time in Africa, please bookmark this page and I will reciprocate by blogging frequently. The next time I write will be next week in transit or when I am actually on the ground! Unbelievable. Until then.

Yes, I Dumpster Dive

Things we found dumpster diving after Northwestern students moved out:
Czech kroner
German/American/Greek porn dubbed in Chinese ("classi sex movies")
passport photo
Bonjour chocolat hot chocolate making set, in sealed box
globe throw ball
3 pairs old Levis jeans
multiple plastic organizers
rattan decorative blanket holders
proactiv acne fighting kit
journal about being chapter president of a sorority
tax returns
clothes drying rack
bulletin boards
garbage cans
volcom backpack
endless school supplies
mini Weber grill
hanging shoe organizer
bags of M and Ms with PiPhi customized messages
too many clothes
toaster
glow sticks
Halloween tatoos
bag of trashy magazines
flip flops
3 pairs Uggs
Ugg gloves
tshirts of various business schools
shot glasses
vases
magazine organizers
Panasonic portable CD player
things to hang posters with
memory boxes
hole puncher
two staplers
lap desk
drafting desk
eight purses
fake gold/silver belt
horrified looks from BMV driving mommies
mysteriously, no books

Free house

It's been a long while since I've blogged. It's not that I've fallen into credit card debt and spend my days and night checking my balances and reconsolidating loans, quite the opposite in fact. I've been studying and living in other people's houses and shopping at Aldi and Unique Thrift Store and generally buying little. But an exciting new opportunity presents: Owen and I are moving downtown and plan on furnishing our apartment only with things we already have, things we make ourselves, things we get for free. Follow us as we embark upon creating a house where you are free to be you and I am free to me, just as free as free can be. What will this place turn into? If its any indication, we have already started saving spent pens and discarded peanut butter jar lids in order to make an 80s era sculpture or mural of refuse. I'm terribly excited and ready to dumpster dive and curb surf like a maniac during our last weeks in Evanston to get ready for FREEHOUSE!

The End of an Era

As the year of greatly reduced buy sputtered out of existence with the advent of 2008, I have mused a bit about what I learned by undertaking this experiment. First and foremost, it is hard not to buy anything, whatsoever. It requires more foresight, planning, impulse-control, and awkwardness with friends than I expected or possessed. We live in a country built on the notion that you can buy your way to happiness, peace, power, and security. Our government is poised to give people money specifically so that they can spend it on random trinkets. What kind of message does that send to children? Consumption is a civic a duty? There are so many ways to participate in our government, and our society more broadly, but it seems that buying things is the easiest route. Consumption appears to take the least amount of time and emotional involvement and thus defines our collective societal terrain. (Although as someone who shopped the post-Christmas Old Navy sale/insanity for colored jeans, I would point out that I emerged from that store hours later and mentally and emotionally drained). So lesson one of the year is that it takes considerable effort to stay involved with mainstream American society if you don't buy.

The second thing that struck me about this year is the difference between being anti-consumer and pro-environment. At the outset, these ideologies might seem perfectly aligned, but I found that I could live quite frugally in environmentally harmful ways. When Owen and I were still in Baltimore, we often grocery shopped at Save-a-lot, a store remarkable for its rock bottom prices on everything. But, many of the products were trucked or shipped long distances, the tuna was not dolphin-safe, the produce was drenched in pesticides, and the coffee was probably traded in the most unfair way possible. If I was paying bottom dollar, then somewhere else in the world, another person or animal was being shafted. Two ideas spoke to me on this issue. The first is Michael Pollan's argument (from his book, the Omnivore's Dilemma) that we should eat locally and recognize where our food came from and the impact of growing or raising it. Second, reading NY Times articles about the environmental and human abuses at factories in China following the lead paint on toys scandal impressed upon me again that cheap things carry high costs elsewhere. I want to start buying more toys and clothes made domestically and with an eye towards quality. Both Pollan and the Times coverage made me think that environmental protection, human rights, and support of local business are things worth paying premiums for.

The third thought I have looking back is that it can be FUN to participate in the economy. Owen and I joined a crazy beater of a gym down the street from us called the Sweat Shop. We love going to exercise classes and working out there. The monthly fee is worth those experiences and benefits to our bodies.

Perhaps I will have more thoughts about this experience soon. I'm reading Alan Wiseman's "The World Without Us" and have been salivating over a world with no human influence where nature can reclaim its space and dominion. How could we create that world now, with us still here?