A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village
by James Dr Maskalyk
In 2006 James Maskalyk, a young, single ER physician, gave up a successful practice at one of Torontos finest hospitals to join Doctors Without Borders. Armed with a wide set of medical skills and unburdened by a family of his own, he volunteered to serve in the world's most dangerous places. After months of waiting, he received his assignment: a small village called Abyei, sandwiched in between two military compounds on the border of northern and southern Sudan.
Six Months in Sudan is the riveting memoir of a young doctor trying to heal a village on the brink of devastation. With tribal factions at war all around him, Maskalyk tries to keep the peace in his makeshift hospital while waging his own battle against wars terrible offspringdisease, starvation, and, perhaps most frightening, the numbness and hardening that threatens his resolve. In spite of the many losses he endures, there are victories great and small, medical and political, personal and communal, which buoy his spirits. And there are lighter moments, toonights listening to the village jazz band and morning jogs across the African desert.
"An optional choice for general readers and also suitable for medical school or hospital libraries where there is interest in international public health or Doctors Without Borders." - Library Journal
"Even if Maskalyk frustrates in his apolitical stance ... he provides a raw and deeply felt account of his time in Sudan." - Publishers Weekly
"The blogs have been slightly edited but retain the syntax and general format of the original, which slows reading but lends his work a you-are-there immediacy. ... A grim glimpse of stopgap measures in a world where humanity is desperately needed." - Kirkus Reviews
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