Emily's Worldview

Four of us had gone up to a hillside village to speak with the local leaders about starting a community health worker program. On the way up, I practiced driving for the first time. The car is an old, enormous landcruiser with no power steering, and a sticky gearbox that had recently been rebuilt. The wheel is on the right side. The staff member who is teaching me to drive assured me that this road was much easier than most others I would encounter. It was a combination of ruts, ditches, piles of sharp-looking rocks, and slick patches of mud frequented by animals, women with loads on their heads, and darting school children. I drove for maybe half an hour and my arms and legs were shaking from the effort. I did not get stuck and I did not hit anything, and I did not even stall out. But that big heavy truck moves, no matter what is in front of it or under its wheels. And even though I had been nervously watching the other SIC drivers and the challenges they took on, all of the sudden I couldn’t wait for the second lesson. The next frontier will be town, with its fluid definitions of lanes, aggressive drivers, and creative pedestrians. I'll be in the mix, high off the ground, above a diesel engine.