Amy's opinions are hers alone

i think i am the only person in msf who actually supports the idea of the peacekeepers coming in (granted, i'm not really "in" msf. i started 5 months ago and in a week i will be done. i'm hardly a spokesperson for the organization). over the last few days i have had the chance to talk to a lot of different people in the organization and none of them believe that a military solution will solve anything. i might be inclined to agree with them if they were able to suggest an alternative plan, but they can't. when i ask them what the solution is and how we can stop the people of darfur from dying, they simply say "there is no solution". ok, so they think that deploying the peacekeepers will turn sudan into another iraq, but what else can be done? and if you had to pick, would you pick another iraq or another rwanda? maybe i'm too new at this to not be naive, but i think there has to be SOMETHING that can be done. i can't accept that we just have to sit back, stay out of it and try to get access to the people who are suffering. i think that someone, somewhere has to try to stop what is happening. i had this argument with one of the upper guys last night. i agree with him that we need to get access to the people, but shouldn't we be doing something to try to stop it before it happens in the first place? and if we don't have the capability to do something, shouldn't we be supporting the people who do?

tonight i leave sudan. officially. tonight at 7:30pm i fly out of khartoum and head to switzerland. i arrive friday morning at 11:30 and start my day of debriefing at 12:30. talk about efficiency :) on saturday and sunday i get to see milena, gustavo and monica, who will all be in geneva for the weekend as well. this is the part that i most look forward to. the best debriefings i have had have always been talking about my trip with people who were there. when i came back from the philippines i only wanted to talk to the cebubians about it. when i came back from afghanistan, i only wanted to talk to hil about it. i don't know what it is, but apparently it's a common enough phenomenon that msf canada sets you up with someone who has been back from the field for awhile, so you have someone to talk to when you need it. on monday morning i have my medical checkup (where they get to search my body for parasites), then on tuesday i fly to toronto. wednesday, my birthday, i spend the day debriefing with msf canada, then that evening i fly home. i arrive home on my birthday, october 18th, at 8pm, only 12 short days after leaving habillah :) i can't wait to actually get HOME. i am going to eat mcdonalds frenchfries until i vomit. literally.