Why do I want to do international work?

Ever since I decided to go into international public health/development work, people have been asking me why I want to go work so far away and live in uncomfortable conditions when there are countless important problems to be addressed in my own country. There are a lot of ways to answer that question, but the simplest one starts with the following (from The Audacity of Hope, which, yes, I am still slowly working my way through):

"It takes a trip overseas to fully appreciate just how good Americans have it; even our poor take for granted goods and services - electricity, clean water, indoor plumbing, telephones, televisions, and household appliances - that are still unattainable for most of the world."

I would add to that list: emergency health care; social security; welfare; medicare/medicaid; affordable public education; libraries; the internet and the enormous wealth of information that comes with it; safe and reliable public transportation; a functioning legal system...the list goes on and on.

In most developing countries, someone who has even half those things is considered very, very wealthy and/or fortunate. Puts things in perspective a bit, doesn't it? Yes, there are problems in the US that affect a lot of people's lives and absolutely deserve attention, I don't deny that, and I'm very glad that they are smart, motivated individuals working on those problems. Someday, maybe I will even become one of them. However, I strongly believe in the importance of being passionate about your work, and right now, at this point in my life, the problems being faced by people in the developing world are the ones that speak to me the most.

I was lucky enough to be born into an extremely privileged life, and I feel a deep responsibility to give back by helping those who who were not so lucky. The way I see it, it's logical to start with the people in the world who are the most unlucky, and to me personally, that means people that are poor and/or underprivileged by the standards of the developing world, not the Western world.