James Maskalyk

People are hungry to be brought closer to the world, even its hard parts. I went to Sudan, and am writing about it again, because I believe that which separates action from inaction is the same thing that separates me from my friends. It is not indifference. It is distance. May it fall away. James Maskalyk set out for the contested border town of Abyei, Sudan, in 2007 as Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders/MSF) newest medical doctor in the field. Equipped with his experience as an emergency physician in a downtown hospital and his desire to understand the hardest parts of the world, Maskalyk's days were spent treating malnourished children, fending off a measles epidemic, and staying out of the soldiers' way. Worn raw in the struggle to meet overwhelming needs with inadequate resources, he returned home six months later more affected by the experience, the people, and the place, than he had anticipated. Six Months in Sudan began as a blog that he wrote from his hut in Sudan in an attempt to bring his family and friends closer to his hot, hot days. It is a story about humans: the people of Abyei who suffer its hardship because it is their home, and the doctors, nurses, and countless volunteers who leave their homes with the tools to make another's easier to endure. With great hope and insight, Maskalyk illuminates a distant place - its heat, its people, its poverty, its war - to inspire possibilities for action. Some of the work in repairing the world is grim, but most of it is not. Hope not only meets despair in equal measure, it drowns it.

A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village

Six Months in Sudan

a young doctor in a war-torn village

Six months in Sudan

In this deeply personal book, humanitarian doctor and activist James Maskalyk, author of the highly acclaimed Six Months in Sudan (Canongate, 2009), draws upon his experience treating patients in the world's emergency rooms. From Toronto to Addis Ababa, Cambodia to Bolivia, he discovers that although the cultures, resources and medical challenges of each hospital may differ, they are linked indelibly by the ground floor: the location of their emergency rooms. Here is where Dr. Maskalyk witnesses mourning and laughter, tragedies and hopes, the frailty of being and the resilience of the human spirit.

James Maskalyk

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