Judging

Most of you heard me say I was coming to Australia for more than my doctorate. I see this trip as a journey of learning about life and myself. Part of the practice of health promotion is to be reflexive, recognizing your own biases when working with people. Here's just one of the things I’ve learned.

The old adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ is so true. I’m meeting lots of new people and as I get to know them my opinions change…always for the better.

Every day I’ve sat near a woman from Thailand who just finished her PhD in biostatistics. She’s leaving tomorrow to go home, her mother isn’t well. We talked on Saturday for several hours. She spoke about Buddhism and massage and healing. We said goodbye both expressing how much we enjoyed our conversation. I’ll miss her.

Another student from Cambodia, whose here with his wife and two young children, shares fruit with everyone in the student room, including delicious strawberries he picked himself on a farm where he works to earn extra money.

A beautiful young woman from Bangledesh told me of her part time job. I just found out it was picking broccoli. A bus picks up workers at 6 in the morning and they work for a couple of days a week in the growing season. Many students or their partners work on farms.

Another student also from Cambodia is always smiling. He told me how his car was stolen with text and library books inside. It was found burned, he showed me pictures on his phone. “I love that car, even though it’s a car it was my friend” he told me smiling. He had no insurance.

I’m always expecting people to be surprised when I say I’m a student but no. People don’t judge me by my ‘cover’.