Brown and other relief physicians note that they've made lasting friendships with fellow team members, too. Within hours, everyone just comes together and focuses on the problem. But along with the good comes plenty of hardship to test volunteers' zeal. On our last trip, we did 140 children in five and a half days, plus we gave lectures. The nurses and the anesthesiologists do the same thing.
Safety can also be a concern.
Then during the day you'd get people who were casualties. At every block there were army check points and soldiers. For the most part, the physicians are left alone because of their relationships with the relief groups. When Mead went to Jaffna, much of the town had been bombed out during a military takeover 17 months before. You couldn't walk anywhere after dark and the power was so lousy, you couldn't read.