Youth Volunteerism/Mission Opportunities

("Soon to be Medical Doctor Extraordinaire")
and BSM's Health Initiaitive Champion!

by: Laura Markle Downton

Today I have the pleasure of sitting down with Kristin Walsh, who is lending her immense medical knowledge to getting the BSM Health Initiative rolling. With the generous support of Drexel School of Medicine & the National Institute of Health, the goal of the Health Initiative is to increase the wellness of community internal to and surrounding BSM by building solid bridges between our neighbors who face huge barriers to accessing medical care and health services available throughout Philadelphia. We are also seeking—long term—to fill in the gaps where available services fall short and increase our community's range and quality of health care.

LMD: How did you get interested in practicing medicine?

S.T.B.M.D.E. Kristin Walsh: I made no grand pronouncement about it at age five, but I just knew I wanted a career interacting with people. You make these young, naive decisions not knowing what you are in for. Then you get in and realize that this does not just involve science, but a combination of sociology, economics, politics and science. But science is very limiting because diseases vary person to person. Nothing is fixed. Sometimes pieces fit, and sometimes they don't. Yet you get to interact with people and be light and grace in their lives.

I don't know that I believe you are called to one thing- but you can do one thing well and not be convinced that it's "the thing." I want to do what I do as well as I can.

LMD: Do you have any funny stories to share that our readers could appreciate?

Walsh: Well, you would not believe this crazy hematoma...

LMD: Okay, gotta stop you there...already lost.

Walsh: Honestly, I feel like I cry more than I laugh at the hospital. The laughter is always ironic laughter. I can tell you, though, that my favorite E.R. patient was a little girl who came in at 2:00AM having shoved a bead all the way up in her nose. Her dad was so concerned! The doctor, unphased, explained how common this was. Most things that present are rough though.

LMD: So, how did you end up waking up in Swasiland a couple years ago?

Walsh: Well, I was enrolled in medical school and it's a trendy time to take time off. It is important to be a person, not just a student. But nothing fit and I wanted to know what I should be doing. One Sunday I was at church, and my pastor at that time mentioned HIV/AIDS, and the country of Swasiland in relation to HIV/AIDS. I remember having looked at picture books of Swasiland as a kid. AIDS had been a thought and a prayer for me, and I had sensed that somehow I'd be involved in this crusade in a bold way. I remember thinking "somehow I'm going to end up in this."
That same Sunday my pastor said during his sermon, "maybe you should take a year off and go there." In that moment, I knew this answered all the questions I'd raised. This was my entry point. People challenged my decision to go to Swasiland. They said that I should wait and go when I was a doctor. But I asked: "What if I'm not going to be the doctor I could become if I haven't seen this first?"

And four months later, I left for Swasiland. I went to work with a faith-based nonprofit, where I worked closely with a woman assigned to HIV care. This involved mostly traveling to promote HIV testing in the villages, initially. Extraordinary numbers of tests were coming back positive so the conversation had to change to how do we manage their care once they are diagnosed. The practices of care are not sustainable in the system currently in operation. In Swasiland, the West has exploited everything out of their land and now expects them to give back. That is just not possible. To do nothing about this means death for an entire community. Yet long-term, the solutions in place are not sustainable but in the moment all we could do was grasp at straws. To only look to future solutions means people die now and I'm not okay with that. There are only "now" thinkers there now, not visionaries. But if we wait, half of the population of Swasiland will be dead. The country of Swasiland has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the global community. The life expectancy in Swasiland is a straggering 33 years.
How would you live your life differently if you thought you'd die at this young age of thirty-three? Even fifteen-year olds are without mommies. I must then ask, what is the resulting impact on society? What is a motherless society? Fathers are already gone in cities trying to get money to support their families in the villages, yet even this is practically forced due to lack of alternative options for work. If there was not a depleated economy, the men would not have to go away, and in the process bring the AIDS back to the women in the villages.

LMD: What did you do to cope with these realities? What sustained you to press on whilst working against these odds?

Walsh: A Psalm that says "God sends rain" means something very different when you are in a drought. Those are good days when I have enough faith to seek out hope. Then there are days when the badness of people reveals itself and they fail you. When you're in the thick of it, you find things to survive. I would run around the mountains to remember the land's beauty. But there's a shift in your heart when you accept suffering and the worst as the norm. Then any bit of goodness is received as a gift. It is a pricarious balance. It is tiring to assume suffering and sometimes your soul needs a break. Choosing hope is always going to be a battle, but hope flows to the lowest points with a gravitational force.

LMD: Can you name a scene from your year in Swasiland that sticks out in your mind?

Walsh: One day I was traveling on the coast of Mozambique in a bus, and our fellow passengers included a goat and four chickens. The goat had been placed in the trunk before we departed and would bleet at every bump in the road as we cruised along the coast for six hours at 50 km per hour! At the same time, a draft of chicken feathers was flwoing out the front window. Though the scene was hilarious, it was for a basic purpose. Some of the passengers had packed dinner and to keep 'dinner' from spoiling, they were kept alive until they reached their dinner location. But that poor goat was not happy!

LMD: So after your return from to the States, how did you end up at Broad Street Ministry?

Walsh: There were two key factors of at play. The first was that I was driven out of the church I was attending because of my own health problems which were blamed upon my not having enough faith or being the result of some unforgiven sin. The second was that I was working with several AIDS programs in Philadelphia and heard that Broad Street Ministry was having a huge World AIDS Day event. I asked myself, what kind of church is loving enough that HIV folks feel safe going? I thought: 'Maybe they have a theology of disease that allows people to be sick and be safe. Maybe I could live my doubts and somehow believe that there is healing beyond a clinical definition of wellness.' When I started attending BSM, I took a month to feel it out before getting more deeply invested. I am now excited to be working with a team on the newly forming Health Initiative at BSM.

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