James Maskalyk > Quotes

“People who do this type of work talk about the rupture we feel on our return, an irreconcilable invisible difference between us and others. We talk about how difficult it is to assimilate, to assume routine, to sample familiar pleasures. The rift, of course, is not in the world: it is within us....The world is a hard place -- a beautiful place, but so too an urgent one. ... Once that urgency takes hold, it never completely lets go.”
― James Maskalyk, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village

“Answer me something. This life, where you get to meet people and know them, and become friends, and then in a few days or a few weeks, either they leave or you do...is it worth it? I am not sure. I think so. Maybe having your heart broken like that is what keeps it open.”
― James Maskalyk, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village

“To the world, it doesn’t matter that much. Until you remember that it means the world to the patient. One exact world, bright and full of sounds, per person. That is what is lost.”
― James Maskalyk, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village

“If the unit of human understanding is the story, the story at least in this part of the world includes the cow.”
― James Maskalyk, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village