Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Currently Reading...

I just finished a small book by Dr. James Maskalyk -- "Six Months in Sudan."

Maskalyk is a Canadian doctor who left his Kensington Market apartment to work for Doctors Without Borders in a small village in Southern Sudan.

To be honest, I was expecting a travelogue: a history of the region, a little bit about the current conflict, some colour thrown in with various characters and a list of the hardships encountered by the good doctor. Instead, I got a poetically written book interspersed with entries from the blog that Maskalyk kept while in Sudan.

It is less about the travel or the doctoring and more about dislocation: Both Maslayk's and of the people caught in the conflict between the rival factions from the north and the south.

Every other page brought with it a turn of phrase, a situation or a bit of raw emotion to life in such a way as to cause me to wince, sigh and count myself amongst the undeservingly lucky few on this planet. Pick it up; read it; follow the blog.