Why I'm here (on Saturday afternoon)

Saturday afternoon and I'm at the university in front of my computer and wondering why I'm here. The excitment of finally starting the thesis seems to be getting lost in a pile of books, articles and notes. I have three more months before we fly away (tickets were booked yesterday!), it seems plenty of time but the last month has gone so fast I'm beginning to worry.
I'm trying to work on a literature review but things are going slowly. As there is little literature specifically regarding short term medical missions the literature review is ending up much wider- in particular I am looking generally at the role of expatriate medical professionals in developing countries, and at the role of NGO's in health care provision. This is leading me up all sorts of interesting pathways and diversions- International Health and NGO's both being rather large areas.One thing I am really starting to wonder about is who should be responsible for providing health care. NGOs and expatriate professional teams may provide a great service (of course whether they do or not is an entirely different thesis question!) but should they be "doing" or should it be the responsibility of the State? If it's the States responsibility then what is the role of non-State agencies? The reality is that in this market-driven world we live in State responsibilty is obviously decreasing, and private health care providers have become increasingly important. This does leave an important stop-gap role for NGOs who can provide free or cheap services the private companies don't want to do and the government can't or won't provide. Perhaps this is precisely the reason both long-term NGOs and short term medical missions are an increasingly common feature of health care provision in the world today. Whether or not this is the way things should be I'm really not so sure. Of course thats what research is all about- exploring that which you are really not sure about. As Einsten is reputed to have said- "if we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research"!