http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/footeloose/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from footeloose en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:58:50 +0000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:58:50 +0000 Hello everyoneI got my assignment with Doctors Without Borders MSF Medecins Sans Frontieres and will be heading off on February 10th for New York brief HR orientation Paris quick finalization of methods of treating multidrug resistant tuberculosis then on to Nairobi Kenya. I will be working in the slums called Mathare outside Nairobi with a team of people. I don't have a lot more det http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Nairobi-Province/Nairobi/blog-369505.html I'm back in the States having arrived in Seattle on 6 November but I wanted to post one more blog. For those of you struggling with your commute to work I thought I'd show you one possible alternative. This is a composite of a typical day for me and my medical colleagues traveling to clinic sites 0500 I usually get up a little early so I can work on the Internet at a time when there aren't http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/blog-342134.html The Dominican Republic was both interesting and challenging Weather got in the way a couple of times making it impossible for the helicopters to pick us up from the clinic sites. So we had to lsquoRemain Over Night RONrsquo. I had this opportunity not once but twice We stayed in a barracks that is in the Sports Complex where we held the clinic. The local fire truck brought water and f http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Dominican-Republic/blog-339029.html I finally got an opportunity to get out into the field in Haiti. The medical and veterinary team was scheduled to go out on the 24th and mustered lined up at 630 am with all our gear. We waited on the ramp very uncomfortable with our flotation devices on and helmets at the ready until 830 when they decided they couldn't get the part they needed for the helicopter to make it safe to oper http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Haiti/blog-328953.html We got liberty at Guantanamo on two occasions the first during the big refueling and resupply stop we made where we were allowed off the ship for about 6 hours one day and 4 hours the next. We stopped at Guantanamo again on the way to a liberty port in Puerto Rico and were allowed off for another 2 plus hours. The base has about 10000 people and many amenities. We were allowed to go to the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Cuba/blog-328947.html The Kearsarge provided a HUGE amount of assistance in Haiti with the helicopters lifting more tons of food water and relief supplies than I can even imagine. We left there to go to Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba to get supplies and fuel try to imagine this we took on 750000 gallons of fuel for the ship and another 250000 gallons for the helicopters. But we left 3 helicopters work http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Haiti/blog-328938.html Photos from our clinics in Colombia ref previous blogs. Candelaria and San Cristobal took place in hospitals with quite modern facilities. Palmira is a community of displaced persons whose city sits 2 inches above sea level and most of the town floods when it rains in the poorer houses one of my colleagues visited and found peole walking through inches of standing water inside their homes. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-323806.html Hurray It worked. The trick is I have to get up at 0400 and I can load about 68 pictures before the Internet gets too slow. So here is the first batch. I have so many visual images I want to share with everyone. It's frustrating not to be able to do more. Just have to rely on my word pictures ltsmilegt.More to follow..... http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Haiti/blog-323804.html We're off the coast of Haiti near PortauPrince providing assistance to areas in the north and southeast of the country cut off when the roads washed out in the flooding from the recent hurricanes. Our helicopters are transporting hundreds of thousands of tons of relief supplies mostly rice beans flour and oil to people who have no food and no water. At the moment the helicopters from the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Haiti/blog-323275.html I try not always successfully to begin every day with the expectation that at least 2 things I have carefully planned or arranged will go awry. It has significantly reduced my tension and probably my blood pressure. It has served me well so far here. First some background we have been traveling back and forth to the beach from the ship either in landing craft or helicopters when the ship http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-320469.html hellip a constant fact of life. It actually boggles the mind to consider the complexity of arranging schedules transportation security meals water supplies equipment and more for a shifting portion of the 1500 people on board the USS Kearsarge. Groups are going to different locations and doing different tasks and almost all of it gets done even if not in the most timeefficient manner. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-320278.html A different clinic today held at the large regional hospital. We had 6 physicians from the Kearsarge and 4 from the Colombian military. I was happy for the latter when my first patient had molluscum contagiosum a contagious but not generally dangerous skin condition. In the US we use electrocautery to treat it but I learned that here where that's not available they suggest the mom pick th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-318414.html I made it to Santa Marta from Tampa Florida and have been immediately immersed in the work of Project HOPE. This project is part of the US government's mission called Continuing Promise 2008 a humanitarian mission to Central American and Caribbean countries April through November 2008. In addition to the medical teams with primary care and surgical components there are dentists hygenists op http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Santa-Marta/blog-318404.html Hello to all my friends and relatives. I am embarking on another adventure this time with Project HOPE to provide health care to people around the Caribbean. After spending a few days visiting with my son Daniel in Florida where he goes to school Irsquom flying to Colombia to join the Project HOPE staff medical personnel from other agencies Operation Smile is one they do cleft lip and http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Magdalena/blog-312441.html 20 June 2006On the way to Gilgit at last. Karim had to come by road because two ldquoconfirmedrdquo flights were canceled due to weather. So this morning at 0400 I set off in the FPAP Land Cruiser with the driver and 4 other passengers for the journey of less than 630 km 378 miles that will take us 14 hours or more. As we left the city of Islamabad and traveled toward Rawalpindi we were e http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Northern-Areas/blog-81052.html More random thoughts 1 The Musharraf government instituted an anticorruption program in 2002. Apparently this led to an intense training program of the traffic police in Islamabad. Everyone I talk to seems to be very pleased with how courteous and helpful they are now. 2 Just saw a road sign saying ldquoCivilized people avoid unnecessary horn blowing. ldquo But itrsquos clear that t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Northern-Areas/blog-81044.html Hi Irsquom Nancy from Seattle Washington the state on the west side of the United States not Washington DC the US capital on the east coast. I just arrived in Islamabad Pakistan today to start a 12week adventure and wanted to share something about it with you.I am a Family Physician who quit practice after 21 years at a migrant and community health center in eastern Washington State http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Northern-Areas/blog-81041.html After 31 grueling hours of travel Seattle to JFK in New York to Dubai to Islamabad delayed flights only had one checkin bag and it didnrsquot get to Islamabad wonder where it DID go I am literally halfway around the world with a 12hour time difference. Itrsquos not Kansas Random thoughts the young taxi driver told me this am hersquos highly educated but lost his goodpaying http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Islamabad/blog-67502.html