Doctored by K'Anne Meinel Page A

asked as she looked up and smiled at his mistake.
    “Yes, Doktor,” he bowed slightly out of respect to her profession.  Having a female doctor was a novelty in this male-dominated country.
    “I’d like to go with you next time you go,” she stated to let him know there were no hard feelings and to make herself clear.
    “I go tomorrow,” he assured her.
    “May I go?” Leida asked.  She desperately wanted to get out of the village for some time away.
    “Me too?” Maddie asked.
    “We will have to ask Doctor Wilson and let Alex know we will be unavailable,” Deanna answered.
    In no time at all, Doctor Wilson gave them the well-deserved time off and Alex was informed in case anything else came up.  The three women were scheduled to leave with Lakesh.  He hadn’t really planned to go the next day, but was accommodating them.  Only Doctor Wilson and Alex knew that the guide hadn’t originally planned to go the next day, but the three women were thrilled to be getting some well-deserved time off and to see some more of the country.
    “How did you get involved with Doctors Without Borders?” Maddie asked Deanna over the noise of the engine.
    “Ah, they held a seminar/recruitment off-campus at one of the libraries in Boston.  I was curious so I went.  I’d just come back from Switzerland and an intense course on tropical diseases.  I wanted to be where the action was, not where they brought the patients.  I felt I could help them more on site, you know?” she shouted.  Leida, turning around to join in the conversation, nodded.
    “How long did you sign up for?” the Australian asked and then hit her chin on the back of the seat from the uneven road.  Rubbing it ruefully, she looked on inquiringly at the young doctor.
    “At first they only let me sign up for six months.  They sent me to the Amazon.  God, I loved it despite the bugs, the heat, and the dysentery,” she answered nostalgically.  “I felt I was really doing something.  It was such a challenge!”
    “How long ago was that?” Maddie asked, fascinated by the enthusiastic doctor.  She had such adventures to share.  Getting time alone with her was becoming increasingly hard as everyone except for Harlan and Doctor Burton loved her.
    “Over two years ago, I don’t know.  The time seems to blend after a while with all the work.  I just want to make a difference, to help them,” she said sadly, remembering the mass of humanity that came through these war-torn areas.  One of the reasons she was heading into Lamish was to send a message herself asking why the other doctors from MSF hadn’t arrived.  She had been in Mamadu too long for them not to have come to get her and send her on to another location.  She also wondered if her other messages had gone astray.  “How about you?” she asked Maddie first and then glanced at Leida to include her in the question.
    “I was in New York finishing up my nursing degree, but I wanted more.  I knew that working in New York I’d see everything,” she answered with a tone that implied that gunshots and other emergency calls were not what she wanted.  “I think we probably had the same recruiter.  I wanted to make a difference and learn triage in the field.”
    “You wanted to be a triage nurse?”
    “Yes and no.  I’m young enough that I have a lot to learn.”
    She was impressed with the nurse’s dedication. “What about you?” she asked, including Leida once again.
    “I needed to get away.  I’d been in Sydney and they sent me to work in the bush.  I liked it too much and I think they thought I was going off my head.”  She grinned ruefully at her confession.  “I don’t know if I was, but I’m damned good at what I do and I like helping.  Some of this is a bit much,” she gestured at the African countryside they were driving through, but they all knew she meant the people that came through their clinic.  “Making a difference, that’s what is important.”
    They