They came from everywhere,… as far as 20 Km from their village or homestead to this place called Ganze Health Center. It was small, had services like laboratory evaluations pharmacy distribution, HIV/AIDS counseling, but it was literally “in the middle of nowhere”. But it rendered service. Service to many who had no alternative, because they were sick or dying, because they knew no remedy,.. not even the herbal medications extracted from the field worked any more. The pain just wouldn’t go away. Or, maybe the skin infection from which their small child suffered was more than the young Mother could bear to see.
They came from everywhere, to this place with no Doctor, no Pharmacist and sometime no medicines, at least not the ones they needed. Frequently, they were told that the medicine wasn’t there. That they needed to go to the “local” chemist. But there they knew that the cost would be high, the distance sometimes far. Yet the clinical officers and nurses offered the care they could, providing the medicines they had, despite frequent “stock-outs” rendered by delivery shortages from government distributors.
Imagine your medical center that you traveled 20 Km to reach. Imagine not having an automobile or even public transit to reach it. Worse yet, imagine not having the money to travel by public transport, if it was available. Imagine no water, little food and insufficient strength to travel the long journeys, by foot, to receive some semblance of health care. Yet they come, because there is no alternative, because death stands close by, watching to intervene, if they don't come.
Global healthcare is in crisis. Obvious?... perhaps.. but we sometimes do not recognize and why people are so sick, nor why they remain so sick. Environmental reasons are surely present. There are places experiencing drought. Climate warming has taken a heavy toll. In places where mosquitoes and other insects prevail, malaria, denque fever and river blindness are similar in their prevalence as the common cold is in our world. The planet is large, and so there are still places yet unreached by roads and other symbols of infrastructure. Cities, towns and villages remain separated by huge distances. Although this separation has been mitigated somewhat by communication amenities such as cell phones and the internet, the east does indeed remain far from the West.
The larger tragedy is perhaps we haven’t considered what we can do about all of this. But its hard to even think about how we can take care of our neighbor, especially when the neighbor is on the other side of the globe. But what about our neighbor around the corner or next door. Its hard work. Given all that we must contend with to take care of our own lives, and now we’re asked to care of someone else’s life. I don’t think so. Its easier to just look away. Maybe when I look back, it won’t be there, or maybe it’ll take care of itself. Isn’t God watching out for this? Doesn’t He care?
Suffering is everywhere. They do come from everywhere,.. next door, around the corner, around the world, …and it doesn’t go away, if we pretend its not there, or if we simply look away or close our eyes.
A thought. Maybe God is watching, but watching to see what we’re going to do about the suffering, the pain our neighbor is experiencing. Maybe God is watching to see if we’re going to build a clinic 10 Km or 5Km closer to the village so that our neighbor doesn’t have to walk 20Km. Maybe God is watching to see if we’ll drill a well to a level where we can access water in areas where clean water, or just water is needed, or creatively devise other methods of water access on a planet where, despite drought, 75% of the surface is water. Maybe through creative research we can develop vaccines that will combat malaria or HIV. Or maybe we can enact a truly comprehensive health care law that will insure everyone. Maybe God is watching out,.. to see what how His creation will take care of each other.
Cain’s response to God,” Am I my brother’s Keeper?” has not been diluted across the ages. We’re still asking “Am I my brother’s keeper. And we’re still trying to avoid the obvious answer.
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