I leave the United States (including my two wonderful roommates pictured below and family, not pictured) on Thursday, January 28, 2010 for the remaining three rotations of my fourth year. I will spend one month at Christian Medical College in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India on a pediatrics rotation followed by two months at Macha Mission Hospital in Macha, Zambia before returning to the States in late April. This blog will be a record of my thoughts, delights, struggles, and lessons as I travel. I hope it will accomplish two goals: 1) encourage me to be thoughtful about the people, experiences, and difficulties I encounter so that I may grow through them and 2) allow you to journey with me as I travel, being challenged by some of the things I am and praying for me along the way.
I chose the name More Than Skin Deep because, despite the short length of my stay at each location (and my frustration with not knowing the primary language in either site), I hope to learn about the cultures, values, and beliefs of the people I encounter in India and Zambia. The different skin tones at each place represent something of the cultural diversity I will find, and I’m sure I will become more aware of both my own light skin and the cultural traits I carry as well.
The blog’s name also comes from a Bible passage in Leviticus 13 in the Old Testament where the text talks about infectious skin diseases, the way in which they make the patient unclean, and how to be cleansed. I want to learn more about these holistic ideas of how illness affects one’s place in a community as well as about the possibility of healing and how that happens (emotionally, relationally, physically, spiritually) during these travels. I hope to be part of offering hope, healing, and accompaniment through suffering for patients and families and to learn culturally sensitive ways to do those things.
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