Question answered by Karen DeIulis Hoch, Managing Director, Americas Region and Conferences for PTPI
Boys in Burundi. Photo provided by Village Health Works.
7. Deo asked at one point “why was I saved?”. What qualities do you think Deo possessed that enabled him to survive his journey. Do you think if you were in his place you would have the same outcome?
I believe it is a combination of traits that contributed to Deo’s survival. He had amazing courage and strength to endure what he did in Africa as well as in New York. When many people would have given up, Deo’s tenacity kept him going. He pushed ahead and took advantage of opportunities when presented. In the beginning, these seemed far and few between, but he persevered with the help of others. Most importantly, he had hope. Hope for a better place, a better life, a better situation, and for the safety and health of his people.
Initially, I think my answer would be no, I don’t think I would have survived the constant obstacles that Deo faced. But, after more thought I feel differently. I strongly believe in God’s will for things to happen as they should. Deo was meant to survive. He was given the strength and the will to live. By doing so has helped countless people through his organization Village Health Works. I believe that should I have been in Deo’s shoes, it would be my faith that would have kept me going, providing me with the courage to continue my journey.
The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.
Tags: Global Book Club, Strength in What Remains, Tracy Kidder
Deo’s inner strength is what pulled him through. But I don’t think Deo was even slightly aware of his own strength. How could he have known? There was no way. He just surrendered to ‘What Is’. The great spiritual teachers say that first thing any of us need to do is to completely surrender to ‘What is’ when faced with challenges in life. Then they say, the strength of ‘surrender’ is so powerful that it would change the external surroundings in a mysterious way to solve the problem. Again I do not think Deo knew this either. He innocently surrendered to ‘ What Is’ and went along with what ever/ where ever his life took him to. But one thing he did was he kept his awareness and dream alive, dream of joining a university and to become a doctor and build a clinic at his native place to help his people.
Deo had to survive and was meant to survive to give ‘hope’ to his people and to rest of the world.
My answer is yes. In my own life I kept my dreams alive and worked hard against discrimination and odd circumstances. Of course this is no means a comparison to what Deo went through. But i did not give in and give up my dream to the external forces. In the end I did accomplish what I wanted to. What kept me going? My stubbornness and perseverance and faith in myself. Of course help came to me in a very mysterious way from people and places i did not even know existed.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts K. You make a great point about Deo not realizing his own inner strength. The key is he had hope and as you say surrended to ‘what is.’ In addition, he made the best of the opportunities that came his way. Many times I look back at challenges I faced and wonder how I managed to get through that particular experience (yes, inner strength!)? Most of us do manage and become better beings because of it – even though we may not see the immediate results.