“A friend is always good to have, but difficult to be”, says Norbert Harms.
To foster cross-cultural and cross-sector partnerships in the fight for global health equity, the five-year-old Global Health Corps (GHC) fellowship pairs together two fellows, one international fellow and one national in-country fellow, and places them in a high-impact health organization. I happen to be the in-country fellow in Uganda at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation, with Savannah as the international fellow (my co-fellow).
Adapting to a new environment and lifestyle that one has not been in before is difficult – couple that with a loving husband or wife and family left across the ocean, it’s painful! This is what I exactly went through for the first three days of the two week GHC training session at Yale University in the US, as we were being prepared for the fellowship year. Guess who filled this emotional vacuum for me – my co-fellow. She sacrificed her smartphone and calling credit every day for me to make Skype calls to my wife who I had left behind two weeks after our wedding. “We are both married, I understand the feeling, feel free to use my phone any time to call your wife” was Savannah’s soothing statement to my soul. This helped me focus and learn from the great people at Yale who trained us to be agents for global health equity.
Two weeks later we began working at our placement organization in Uganda. I am working on communications and documentation with no prior work experience in this role, and she is doing research and documentation work with her credible international work experience. Through her guidance and example, I am a better writer, relater, and am more culturally sensitive. She helps to keep me on track with competing appointments at work with supervisors, field activities, GHC staff check-ins and visits, and much more. You cant imagine how disorganized I would be without her!
Have I impacted her life as much as she has to mine? No. Is the end of the fellowship the end of our friendship? Absolutely not. Has she been a good friend to have? YES. Have I been a good friend to have, as she has been to me? No – trust me, I have no high tone trumpet to blow on my side!
The co-fellow relationship is one of the best things that has happened to me in the fellowship. It is one tenet that makes this fellowship unique, and it is indeed worth upholding as we move forward in our careers.