Richard Feidler

And, you know, the irony was that my father had been conscripted as all South African men, white South African men back in those days were.

And he'd been sent to the Angolan border, the South African military border.

um they were involved in the angolan civil war back then um and part of the reason my parents migrated was to avoid me being conscripted so me then 20 30 years later signing up to go back to that exact region putting your hand up it was like it was like the sheerest madness to them i suppose yes once you got there why were you grilled so much by the local workers about why you were there

You know, I thought that I could speak, you know, basic to intermediate Spanish.

I backpacked a bit and I told MSF, oh, I could speak a bit of Spanish.

This is Portuguese.

Exactly, yeah.

One of the guys one day, I mean, I never expected a red carpet as a volunteer.

I did expect that you're going to have to, you got to earn your keep, you got to prove your worth and you're there transiently and these people are there all the time.

So, you know, you have to earn your, prove that you're there to kind of do some good.

But I remember having a conversation.

The language was a huge barrier and I think there was some resentment that they'd sent this sort of 18-year-old looking doctor who couldn't speak the language out to help.

But one of the guys one day, he said, I mentioned that I was a volunteer and he said, what do you mean a volunteer?

And I said, oh, yeah.

oh, well, sign up as a volunteer.

And he said, you mean you're not paid for this?

And I said, no.

And he said, oh, does that mean you're not very good?

You can't get a job in Australia?

Like, why would you come out here for free?