Many Days of Rain | Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs

After many days of rain, even four wheel drive wouldn’t get you out of this sticky mud. That morning, we had to push out six ambulances before breakfast; my assignment was to go in for an attack with the tanks, something I dreaded even in good weather.

It was on that morning that a motorcycle messenger came skidding up from AFS HQ with a cablegram for me, saying I had been admitted to Harvard Medical School. It was like a distant dream from another world. I put it in my pocket and forgot it. I remember doubting that I would even survive that day. I blocked out the impossible dream of ever getting home and becoming a doctor.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was coming down with Infectious Hepatitis which most of our unit got, probably from the polluted water. After a few weeks of hospitalization and rest, I returned to our platoon.

(Photo of me, by a friend with my camera.)

Location: Ambulance Leaguer, San Vito.