Talking to one of my colleagues the other day about her decision to come to Israel. She's from Singapore and was applying for jobs and not getting very far, so she applied to come to Baha'i World Centre as well. Before she heard back from Israel, she was offered a job in Singapore as an assistant in a local hospital. A job that she was dreaming about, but didn't feel qualified for. It also paid more than she expected. Before she had a chance to go in to sign the contract, she also heard back from here. They wanted her to come right away. So, for whatever reason, she decided to turn down the job in Singapore and fly off to Israel instead. The hospital was sad to see her go, and I'm sure that all her friends thought she was insane, flying off to a "warzone" no doubt thinking that she was risking her life...
A couple of weeks after she arrived in Haifa, SARS appeared in South East Asia. It quickly spread to Singapore and her hospital (Tan Tock Seng Hospital) was closed to everyone EXCEPT SARS cases. So from the beginning of March 2003 to the end of June 2003 they dealt with the vast majority of Singapore's 238 SARS cases (including 30 deaths). And she would have been there, at the centre of it all. Instead of risking her life in Israel...