The Real World

How many of us will admit to having watched MTV's "The Real World" tv series? I can say I have watched it when nothing else fit my fancy (i.e. the History Channel was talking about the influence of the French monarchy on American art and Sportscenter was on its 12th consecutive rerun). If you are unfamiliar with it, here's the gist:

Step 1.) Find about 9 mid-twenties people who have hot tempers, decent looks, drama beyond belief, and little in the way of morals.

Step 2.) Stick them all in one new-age psychedelic casa in some upscale neighborhood, usually near a beach and/or metropolis.

Step 3.) Give them "jobs" which consist of a fairly simple task or project, almost like they are back in collegiate general studies classes and have no other obligation to pass the class.

Step 4.) Inundate their lives with drinking and emotional trauma, all while separated from everything they have known, and record it with a camera 24/7.

Step 5.) Remove all the boring footage, leaving only the hot-tubbing, drinking, screaming, fighting, swearing, backstabbing, and gossiping to insinuate that life after college is glamorous.

Step 6.) Broadcast to the world this snapshot of a microcosm as ideal and brainwash youngsters with such propaganda.

My world (particularly the missionaries) here has so many differences, and yet some things are strangely similar. Our tempers rarely flare up in public, we don't have terrible emotional mood shifts, and morals do exist (quite a few in fact). We don't go drinking, and our jobs are truly productive, not to mention rewarding. We don't have cameras constantly monitoring us and propaganda is not our focus. I could go on for some time describing our differences. But what of our similarities? Let's examine. First of all, most of the people here fall in an age range of about +13/-2 years of me. Yes, that means I am one of the young ones. However, nobody is archaic either. Our housing, while quite basic (with our temperature controlled automatic windows [see earlier post]), is certainly on the upper end of the scale of that in our neighborhood. While not confined to one house, the campus seclusion and missionary openness makes any house yours (if we all lived in one house, well it'd be BAD). We also have our emotional issues (not complete mental breakdown every half hour) and are removed from all that we really know to be home. We must rely on each other for some sanity and comfort (sometimes in the form of chocolate). Would life here make a good reality series? Not with my cinematography skills! Even if I had some, I still say no. People might watch it, even the boring parts, and berate us, claiming we have idealized the mission field. You can only understand it through experience.

Whether it's rewiring ICU service columns and repiping the campus with Wes, chatting with Ryan and Sharlene about surguries and cockroaches, putting together jigsaw puzzles and playing cards at the guesthouse, or killing spiders and eating cookies while Cristy jams on the piano, life here is good. I am sad to say that today is my last day here at Malamulo Mission Hospital. No, I'm not headed back to the states. Tomorrow, I leave for a one month stint (so far, that could easily change as my departure plan has changed at least 10 times since Thursday, no joke) in Ethiopia. From there, I am scheduled to move to the western side of Rwanda, where I should be for several months. In less than 7 weeks, I have found a home. The people love sincerely and endlessly. While the work can be hard and frustrate beyond tears (one of our visiting medical students lost an easily-treatable patient due to neglect by the on-duty nursing staff), I wouldn't trade my real world for yours. They have taken me in and will do so to many more after me. I love them all.