Resilience
Zachary G. Jacobs
About the artist:
Zachary G. Jacobs is a third-year internal-medicine resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and a member of the Global Health and Underserved Populations track. His professional interests include global health, medical education and narrative medicine. He believes that the world has a story to tell and attempts to capture that story via art, photography, narrative and poetry.
About the artwork:
“I took this photograph in the Galápagos Islands, where I traveled after spending one month volunteering in local hospitals and clinics in the Napo region of Ecuador. Of the many things I learned during my time in South America, one thing that will stick with me is the resiliency and warmth of the people of that region. They shoulder unimaginable burdens, yet somehow carry on smiling. The tortoise pictured here reminds me of the patients I cared for–his rough and wizened skin suggests a life of hardship, but the upturned corners of his mouth betray a smile.”
