Heroic or Mundane
I have been working with Cabrini for about a month now and have really been in the mix of things since the beginning. One of the things that I have noticed about my work is that nearly everything I do could either be seen as incredibly romantic/heroic or incredibly mundane. I will leave it up to you to decide which it is:
I drove all around the country tracking down medicine so that AIDS patients can live another day
-or-
I spent all day running errands and getting lost because no buildings are labeled.
I helped secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money.
-or-
I spent all day rearranging documents so they met the US Government templates.
We nursed two TB-positive twins who were dying of malnutrition back to health.
-or-
We agreed to change poopy diapers again and clean up messes after meal time.
I oversaw the installation of a multi-site, comprehensive data network.
-or-
I called our our computer to guy to ask why he hadn’t installed the router yet.
We moved from a comfortable house in the States to the most desolate place in Swaziland.
-or-
We cut our living expenses by 90% and still live very comfortably.
My salary puts me well below the poverty level in the United States
-or-
My salary puts me in the top 5% of Swazi earners
I am a missionary in Africa.
-or-
I spend most of my day doing paperwork for a growing organization.
The longer I am here, the more I realize that even in Swaziland, we still deal with the same issues, struggle with the same questions, and measure ourselves by the same standards. Sure, things are much different than what I experienced on a daily basis in the States, but at the end of the day, it is all how you look at it.
Heroic…