South America

Knock on the door that says don’t knock

1999

My last year of the millennium was spent at the end of the world, in Buenos Aires. A Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship afforded me the marvelous opportunity to study Latin American literature and economic development. Most of learning came from the street, and not in the classroom. Talking to the locals, the demonstrations, Presidential elections, sadistic vanity, and absurdities of daily life provided a dynamic and dramatic learning environment.

In the land of Evita, Maradona, and countless cows, I had to visit a public hospital several times for a medical problem. While looking for the doctor’s office, I saw a sign on a door that said, “Don’t knock”. When I asked the receptionist where the doctor’s office was, she told me to knock on the door with the “Don’t knock” sign. That experience sums up my year in the austral Paris: what you think shouldn’t happen probably will and nobody except you will blink an eye.