When he was an undergraduate student in international relations a decade ago, Dr. Jonathan Brock yearned to travel to developing countries to see firsthand the things he had been studying. I think a lot of people don't really understand the very basic principle of common human decency that a lot of us feel when we do this work. Everybody says it's a drop in the bucket and they are probably right, but I'd rather put a drop in than nothing at all. It all adds up.
International work can be hazardous.
Three weeks into his first MSF mission to Somalia in 1993, Brock and 11 other foreign-aid workers were held hostage for 6 hours by the team's own security guards. Working mostly on the rebel side, Brock helped set up a 200-bed hospital and assisted with surgery. About 7000 displaced people lived around the hospital. Today, he is adept at reconciling the conflicting realities of Western and war-zone medicine. You have to be able to move from one to the other.