university advancement 2004 highlights - Western University of ...

NEWS &VIEWSRELIEF TRIP EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE FOR ALUMDr. Rahmi Mowjood, a Family Medicine Departmentfaculty member and COMP alumnus, traveled to SriLanka in January as part of a medical team respondingto the tsunami disaster. Dr. Mowjood, a Sri Lankanative, spent 17 days on the island nation helping survivors.Below is an excerpt of an email he sent tofriends and family upon his return Jan. 27, 2005.Peace and greetings to all of you.After what seemed like an eternal flight, I am, thanksto God, back at home here in California. I arrived thisafternoon with my brother from Colombo.The past few weeks have taken me through a gamut ofemotions. Physical, mental and emotional extremes, bothhigh and low, can do that to a person, I guess, and I finda Dr. Rahmi Mowjood provides medical aid to a young survivor.b Dr. Mowjood, far right, and the team who traveled to Sri Lanka.a.b.myself back here at home awash with memory.How do I personally sort through the past 17days? More importantly, how do I continue tomake my time, the team's time, our time on theisland, relevant? I know that I will have morequestions than answers in the next few days.What seems to haunt me most is that during mylast few days in the capital of Colombo, wherelife is proceeding as planned and many seem tohave forgotten the events of December 26, I felta strong urge to go out and work more, to go toother areas in need of help, areas the teamcould not travel to. I was not content with waitingin Colombo. I was restless, and I didn't takeas much pleasure in the social expectations offamily and friends as I would normally. I wantedto work, to continue to be of some service.In my mind, it seemed that the need in SriLanka was always more and more, and no matterwhat we did, we were just drops of water inan enormous bucket. This makes sense if youlook at it logically —a third world country besetby enormous humanitarian need due to anunexpected and deadly tsunami. I feel verynaive in thinking that our efforts would make adent in this need, let alone scratch the surface.And yet, while I know we did a lot, I have askedmyself — what have I accomplished during myshort stay? Did I, did we, make a difference atall? The answer, as I sit here thinking about it,may come slowly to me, or may never come atall. Maybe the fact that I can ask myself thisquestion, knowing what we tried to do, is anaccomplishment in itself.People told me that this experience, this trip,would change my life. I may be tired from thejet lag while writing this, but I feel like it has.God bless, Rahmi.22 Spring 2005 www.westernu.edu