SEP-A-9
INTRODUCTIONS
OF DAN WIKLER AND PAUL FARMER,
BOTH AT HARVARD, BUT THE LATTER IN HAITI AT
THIS TIME,
WHILE ENTICING
DAN TO JOIN IN THE NEXT LINGSHED TREK
From: Glenn Geelhoed
To: "diwikler@facstaff.wisc.edu".IA4GW.Harper
Date: 9/3/02 11:48AM
Subject: Re: Do I have the trek for you!
Dear Dan:
Wonderful!
I had heard rumors that you
might be heading toward my prior Longwood Avenue stomping grounds, but it was
really great to see the confirmation in your return address on Huntington Ave,
at the HSPH. I used to hang out there
in the few brief moments not committted at the PBBH in a surgical residency,
and hear Franklin Neva and his Tropical Medicine and Parasitology group discuss
Public Health implications of their medical relief missions.
If you have not already done
so, you should get to know Paul Farmer, and discuss with this kindred spirit
some of the ideas you have developed and forwarded to me. Also, medical anthropologist Kris Hegenheugen
and I have been in a virtual correspondence for decades, first from a shared
base in the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine, and then when he
moved to Harvard; despite this long term and long distance relationship, you
may have already met him, and I have not!
I am glad both that you regularly dip into the correspondence
I have sent you and that you do not read everything that I have written!
Neither does Virginia!
No, I have not tried to set
a record in the medical missions completed or planned, but they certainly have
been rewarding, particularly as seen
in the medical students' initial
experience, in which most have reveled in the adventure and exhilaration of
caring for people across multiple boundaries.
On the subject of the Lingshed
Trek- - this one is made to order for you! I do not do the outfitting nor set the details
such as costs, but the Himalayan Health Exchange I have been using for this
part of my medical missions has subsidized the costs to be within medical student
range, and several of them, and I, have used frequent flyer coupons to get there.
I have been talking with a TV documentary producer whom I met over the
North Slope of the Brooks Range two years ago, who was excited about doing one
of the expeditions as a NGS Special, but did not get his proposal in on time
for this year's excursions, but now has been talking with the Discovery folk
about next year's Lingshed Trek.
As you could see from a few
of the forwarded images, the backdrop against
which the mission is carried out is visually stunning, and geopolitically
fascinating, to say little about my anthropologic interests in these populations.
But, the dangers are not to be dismissed, as you may read in the attachment
on the desaturation and evacuation experienced
by one of my own freshman medical students, nor the Pin Valley disaster I had
sent you in a descriptive note about the only other expedition that had passed
us despite the weather change two years ago in Spiti.
I will continue to hope that
we might join in one of the next expeditions (Lingshed- '03 is July 31- - August
23) in one of your favorite areas of
the world, but in a spectacular part of the Himalaya very few people have ever
seen- - and we might compare notes on the observations made along the way!
Congratulations on your move!
Cheers!
GWG
PS: Thanks for your suggestion on the Thesis Proposal outline, which I will
try to forward under separate cover; I would be grateful for any comments, but
would not expect a large investment in your time.
Thanks again!
>>> DANIEL I WIKLER
<diwikler@facstaff.wisc.edu> 08/30/02 12:53PM >>>
Glenn,
I can't say I read everything
you write, but I dip in from time to time
and remain more than impressed,
as always, by your schedule of events
and accomplishments. You must
have set a record.
I'm overcommitted as usual,
and thus probably can't volunteer to be of
service on your Ph.D., but
if the outline is brief do send it and I'll
be happy to read it. I'm now
at the address below.
The Lingshed trek is intriguiging.
I've treked in Spiti and Ladakh but
had not gone to Tso Morari.
So who knows? I'll keep it in mind. The
website is noncommittal about
costs, so if you have an estimate that
would help. When I organized
my own treks up there I did it fairly
cheaply ($35- $50 per day on
the trek, frequent- flyer air ticket, around
$1250 for the whole thing),
but I would expect your costs to be higher.
Dan
Daniel Wikler, Ph.D.
Professor of Ethics and Population
Health
Department of Population and
International Health
Harvard School of Public Health
665 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA 02115
Tel: +1 617 432 2365
Fax: +1 617 566 0365
email: wikler@hsph.harvard.edu
- - - - - Original Message
- - - - -
From: Glenn Geelhoed <msdgwg@gwumc.edu>
Date: Friday, August 30, 2002
1:34 pm
Subject: Do I have the trek
for you!
>
> I have been thinking of
you, and your bride, during the last
> month, as
> I made my way along the
Himalayan highlands of Zanskar: "What a great
> trek for a couple of us
who I know would enjoy this as much as I!"
>
> I sent you a few photos
of the stunning backdrop to our medical
> missionthrough my last
missive, and a complete log and
> photojournalist acccount
> is available.
>
> I thought of you two,
and Virginia- - whom I would like to have you
> meet. She had been planning to accompany me on this
rigorous trek
> thisinaugural year, but
she had several opera gigs and her own
> thesis to
> complete, so we are making
plans for next year.
>
> How about on the repeat
"Lingshed Trek- 03," in early
August 2003, now
> that I have reconnoitered
it? I have the schedule attached (in
> Sep- A- 2
> attached) for next year's
efforts, and it might fit your timing!
>
> I would also like to ask
your "vetting" of the final "Thesis Proposal"
> I am supposed to submit
for the last shot at my dissertation here
> at GW
> in the PhD in Human Sciences.
After an extended "ABD" period of eight
> years, I have the extensoin
only thorugh this mont to get a
> committee to
> be assembled and approve
it after the dissolution of three prior
>
committees, one after the thesis was written.
>
>
This one will be called "Treating Others."
I will send you the brief
>
outline if you approve.
>
>
Thanks for your consideration of BOTH proposals!
>
>
Cheers!
>
>
GWG
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