Reviews for Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village

The average rating for Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-01-25 00:00:00 Roy Roach I think the main reason I'm drawn to books like these is because I want to be reminded that, in spite of whatever it is you're going through, there's a reality out there that's much more harsh and difficult to swallow. When I was in journalism school, we had this one exercise where the prof showed us a picture of a baby with obvious physical abnormalities born in the aftermath of Chernobyl. "Is this the sort of thing that we should be putting on the front page?" This girl who used to sit next to me, a prim and proper little Mary Poppins (who has since graduated and gone on to continue leading her charmed existence), pushed the picture away from her and closed her eyes. She said it was wrong and that she didn't want to have to look at stuff like that because it was "too painful." In that moment, I looked at her and I sort of hated her a little ' partly because I often had to listen to her bitch and moan about petty little things and occasionally talk down to me in her holier-than-thou attitude because she was a Christian and I wasn't sure if I really believed in God. Her attitude sort of reminded me of the time Barbara Bush said, "Why should I waste my beautiful mind on that?" when asked if she watched the coverage on the war in Iraq. Nice, huh? I don't know…I just think a book like this helps to remind you about how the other half lives…that it's so easy to bitch and moan about how "rough" things are for you, when in reality, it's not ' not by any measure.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-11-26 00:00:00 Jeff Knowles It's interesting how many reviewers comment on how hopeless and repetitive Maskalyk's experiences were. That is the nature of grinding poverty (it's not called "grinding" for nothing). That is the brutality of war. The terrible difficulty people face when they work in this situation, perhaps hoping to "solve" something, is that they discover they are so busy dealing with the alligators that they have no time to drain the swamp. I often think that those who create or enable this level of chaos specifically keep it that way, so that no one will be able to address the larger issues - we're too busy trying to keep people from dying or starving to death, one person at a time. It's the one-person-at-a-time thing that enables us to keep going, however; sometimes we actually do help. Sometimes someone, in the midst of their pain, helps US. And occasionally, a really big, heroic figure arises who actually manages to take on the system. I personally find the Oscar Romero prayer relevant.