Paul
Paul Nevin Joined: March 8th 2005
Logged in: July 29th 2011
Logged in: July 29th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Bridge
Appendectomy African Style When I woke up in the middle of the night throwing up and having diarrhea, I must admit that I thought nothing of it. Let’s be honest, I have spent a majority of my time here in Ethiopia participating in such fun tourist activities. The pain, though, was unbearable. It could be likened to the excruciating discomfort of watching Sara Palin in an interview… and equally as nauseating I might add! After spending the rest of the night and following morning writhing in pain, Courtney finally convinced me to go to the ER. After blood, urine, and fecal tests, poking and prodding, and becoming accustomed to the omnipresent hospital stench, it was determined that I probably had appendicitis. As I waited an hour for the surgeon to arrive and make an official diagnosis, ... read more
Ambo
Why I Love Home Depot I am suffering from efficiency deficiency. Symptoms include headache, frustration, and fatigue from constant trips back and forth in search of answers and solutions. Causes range from lack of infrastructure to general countrywide lack of desire to be productive. Building a hospital in one of the most remote parts of a country that still doesn’t have basic infrastructure has proven to be predictably difficult. But I wasn’t prepared for such extensive amounts of bureaucracy and run around from both government and private business. Even the most menial tasks are proving to be obstinately challenging. The process for requesting electricity for the hospital site is as follows: Drive 2 hours to submit a letter, find out you have to get a letter of support from the government, drive back 2 hours, submit ... read more
Local Coffee Shop
A Stool Sample Here? Building a hospital in a foreign country requires immense amounts of research, commitment and determination. Determined to show my commitment to research, I decided that the best way to explore the current healthcare situation in Ethiopia was to get a severe bacterial stomach infection after a few days in Addis. Fried fish at the hotel did the trick. Over a span of about 10 hours, I had diarrhea 12 times and threw up at least 10 times. I didn’t feel sufficiently prepared to explore the local clinic until I was unable to keep even water down. We went to what the embassy told us was one of the best health clinics in Addis… It would have been shut down in minutes in the states. When it was my turn to go back ... read more
Manhattan Skyline
Mop up the tears. Put down the gallon of ice cream. Stop the prozac. I'm Back! I have finally returned to fill the empty feeling that all of my loyal followers have suffered through for the last 2 years. You will all be excited to know that more Paul Nevin blogs are headed your direction. I’m headed out on another adventure and this time I’m dragging my girlfriend Courtney with me. I’m uprooting her from her comfortable life and throwing her into the mix of chaos that I consider fun travel. We are planning to spend 6 months volunteering with the construction of a hospital in rural Ethiopia (and also to avoid needing one before it’s built). We are then hoping to spend an additional 6 months in SE Asia and India travelling around and doing ... read more
Ronnie!
In this Update, I will discuss one of the most esoterically profound questions in the history of man. This brain buster ranks right up there with some of the famously engrossing queries in history: If a tree falls in the forest, but no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Is George Bush the missing homo sapien link between chimps and humans? The question is: Is it an accident if it doesn’t leak from the diaper? Let me preface this thought that will be occupying your minds for the next few minutes (or hours depending on your philosophical endurance) by reminding you that I have spent the last week at Club Sprout with a slow paced group. Now I knew going into the trip ... read more
See, Maine isn't always cold
As you all easily deciphered from the title of this update, I spent the last few weeks leading Sprout trips to Maine, Toronto, and the Poconos. The first trip I went on was to Maine and it was quite memorable to say the least. If I had to give the trip a word for the week, inquisitive would finish a close second to irritation. This group of 7 men and 2 women joined forces to annoy us leaders to an unimaginable extent. Questions, questions, questions. I swear I felt like Alex Trebek after spending 30 minutes in the van. It’s as though all the clients feared losing points for not speaking in the form of a question. “What time are we eating lunch? Where are we eating dinner? What year is this van? What roads do ... read more
The model returns
As many of you may already know, loud and indiscreet eaters are the source of some serious personal vexation for me. Working with mentally and developmentally disabled people through Sprout forces me to work on controlling the aggravation and moving on with my meal. For those of you who have never eaten a meal with a large group of mentally disabled people, I will so kindly describe the enjoyable experience. First off, almost none of the participants chew with their mouth closed. (And to be honest, I am more worried about them keeping the hole at the other end closed at the restaurant so I have to choose my battles.) Now I don’t mean to be picking on the population, but my way of handling situations is to look back on them and laugh instead of ... read more
Cloud forest hike in Costa Rica
I got ‘back-roomed’ in Ecuador’s airport trying to leave the country. It started out as a normal day at the airport... arriving a few hours early and waiting forever while the people behind the desk type away incessantly and most likely, unnecessarily. After waiting for about an hour and moving a total of 7 feet in the line, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a short, round oompa loompa looking narcotics trafficking officer. “I’ve been watching you.” I didn’t really know how to respond so I stared at him and hummed the oompa loompa song to myself. “I saw you from across the room.” Not sure if he was trying to pick me up or just weird me out, I decided to appease him with the privilege of my conversation. “Good vision...” “Thank ... read more
Fences strong enough to keep out the Guerillas
The first inkling that it was going to be an interesting night was when I met Pablo at the entrance to the party and we started chatting and I told him I was from the US. “Oh, really?” he said. “I spent 3 years in the US.” “What part?” I asked. “Florida” he replied simply. “Right on, what did you do while you were there?” “I sat in jail. Apparently the states don’t like it when you bring 5 kilos of heroin into the country.” It was at this juncture that I realized the invitation-only party I was about to walk into, would be one of the most interesting nights of my life. You see, it started off as a normal Friday night for a backpacker: Sitting at a bar drinking cheap beer with 5 guys ... read more
Great for relaxation
Parque Nacional Tayrona is an absolute utopia of stunning beaches. Tropical green mountains brimming with wildlife keep watch over deep Caribbean bays with pristine white-sand beaches littered only by massive boulders and shade-yielding palm trees. The hike in is like walking into the pages of a National Geographic. After a 3 hour hike, I eventually arrived to a camp site situated on the third beach from the entrance. The fascinating beauty of the hike was still distracting and added to the confusion as I arrived… I had missed the camp site and instead stumbled upon an Israeli refugee camp. I heard no Spanish or English being spoken… just Hebrew. I felt overwhelming relief when I discovered that the person sitting behind the reception desk was Colombian. I rented my locker and hammock and quickly got ready ... read more
