This blog was written by our Global Gap Bridge Year Fellow Nora O’Connell.
The plane to Nairobi, Kenya was a 15-minute bus ride from my gate at JFK. The mother-daughter duo sitting near me on the bus were headed to Kilimanjaro (wearing “Kili Bound” shirts), almost jumping up and down with excitement. Also sitting near me was a mother gripping her young son. The mother tapped me, asking why I was headed to Nairobi. I returned the question to find out that they were going back home after a visit to NYC. And just like that, we reached our plane. In just 15 minutes.
Fifteen minutes took on a new meaning for me upon my arrival. One of the first people I met in Malawi was McDonald. He is the supervisor of the HIV clinic here. He showed me his office, decorated with HIV testing protocols (we’re talking floor to ceiling). In this 10×10 office, there were two chairs: one at his desk, and one tiny chair right by the door. I sat in the chair by the door as McDonald and I chatted. I peered at a stack of medical supplies on his desk, prompting McDonald to tell me about the testing procedure: “Once we swab the patient, we sit together for 15 minutes for the results which appear as two red lines.” I looked down at my lap. This very chair cradled patients for 15 long minutes as their worlds were tragically defined by two lines.
Fifteen minutes. That’s how long it took me to get from my dorm to the quad. That’s how long it took me to drive to my best friend’s house at home. That’s how long it took me to walk to McDonald’s office.
Sitting in that chair, feeling the energy and pain of hundreds gutted by those fifteen minutes awaiting their HIV status, brought me sadness, clarity, meaning. Though moments like these are tough to learn about, I feel grateful to learn from people like McDonald about care in different contexts. I anticipate I will have many more life changing fifteen minutes this year. It’s experiential learning moments like this that remind me of my decision to take a gap year back in March. Lecture halls and lab work disconnected me from my goal: to become an expert in care. I am feeling so grateful for this opportunity to be learning from and with these care experts in Malawi, not just hearing their story over a microphone in the Genome Sciences Building. Cheers to more experiential learning…talk soon.