MAY-C-13
From: Glenn Geelhoed
To: cmb@ufl.edu; Internet:afburns@anthro.ufl.edu; Internet:lenny@library.health.ufl.edu; Internet:rosenal@peds.ufl.edu; Internet:small@pathology.ufl.edu; RhooveMassage@hotmail.com
Date: 5/28/03 1:30PM
Subject: Fwd: You have photos from PhotoWorks
The follow- up from Global Health Day is still going along as a synergistic chain reaction!
My surprise at a follow- up from Audiologist Christi M. Barbee could not have come at a better time since I had just reviewed all the Deaf Students in Embangweni to survey how many might be helped by hearing aids, when I had none and no prospect of getting them any. What a wonderful result of this kind of cross fertilization!
I will be heading off to Haiti next week doing much the same as your students there, and will let you know what I see. (see below)
For those of you with a curiosity about what we had been doing in Malawi, to which I went right after the Global Health Day sendoff, I add the access to a photo archive of the medical missions so far this year and other recent events of interest to Parker and Natalie.
Thanks again, and Cheers!
GWG
Re Haiti Trip June 8, '03
Hello Everyone: (Coordinators could you please forward to Dr. Moreno)
We are in final phases of planning the itinerary for our next trip to Haiti. Everyone is going to Thomonde this time so it should be an interesting trip.
We have 2 new doctors joining us this trip - Dr. Jose Moreno (his son is a first year) and Dr. Glen Geelhoed (who is from George Washington University and has many more years than Medishare does in providing health care in developing countries). Our returning docs are Dr. Barth Green (President and co- founder of Medishare), Dr. Arthur Fournier (former president and co- founder of Medishare), Dr. Paul Pietro (board member of Medishare), Dr. Arturo Brito, Dr. Dhiraj Patel, Dr. Ernst Danier, and Marie Chery, R.N. (starting in June she will be the Manager of our community health program in Thomonde). In addition to UM med students, we also have students from GW and Northwestern. And a journalist and photojournalist from the Miami Herald are also coming. Kimberley Green from the Green Family Foundation (a donor to Medishare) and a film crew are also planning on coming though only spending a few days.
Each day we will be splitting into 2 groups and conducting health fairs in different areas. There is a possibility that during the week some changes will be made to the itinerary based on accessibility to the area (rain) or a need to return a second day to the same place.
I would like to add more to our evening de- briefing by having lectures by some of the doctors on the trip. With that said - - if anyone is interested in presenting something (it is very informal) or has other suggestions let me know. Thanks
See you on the 8th!
Ellen Powers, MPH
Executive Director
Project Medishare
8260 NE 2nd Ave
Miami, FL 33138
(305) 757- 9555
>>> Glenn Geelhoed 05/27/03 11:30AM >>>
Now, you too can go "on safari" without taking anti- malarials or risking elephant charges!
I attach the access to the on- line photos of the Malawi experience, with the first two rolls being the medical mission in Embangweni Hospital and the second two being the pictures from the brief safari into South Luwangwe in Zambia. The last roll concludes with my GWU graduation (an M. Phil in Human Sciences for me- - a FOURTH Masters degree!) and the GWUMC graduation (with the "hooding" of my three senior students,) and conversations with commencement speaker, fellow runner and fellow surgeon Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
In addition, I have appended the notes regarding my rainy Memorial Day weekend celebration in a housewarming for the Schaefers in their new home in Trappe MD in Talbot County, Eastern Shore. It was the last of the Spring Turkey Hunting season in MD, so we went out before dawn in the sodden downpours and clucked like hens to the amusement of no birds except a bluebird and Oriole that stopped by- - until for one brief milli- second on the second morning when only a head peeked out form the edge of the wheat field at the mosquito- clouded swamp. A reflex arc patterned that head in the center of a load of number fours, so we had a celebration dinner in the damp Memorial Day, even if many a cookout may have been rained out.
When it rains, it pours. A sudden rush of activity came about as the "Out of Africa" pictures returned and are sorted into albums, and the new horse trailer has been delivered- - and, as if by some kind of magic, a Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Turbo Diesel Quad Cab Laramie package SLT 4WD truck materialized to hitch it to, so at least Porter is well- fixed for passive transport.
Abruptly, while planing the next trips to Haiti and to India, culminating in the Lingshed Trek, Virginia is offered the Carlotta role in the Road Company of Phantom of the Opera, so that she will be leaving for the summer in performance. I will be performing also in the massive packing of all Derwood's warehousing, just after a visit long- awaited of the Griffioen clan, after which the "walls will come atumblin' down." For most of the "Demo" phase, I will be out of country, after Ladakh and Lingshed, going on to Alaskan big game and then on to Sikkim. By late fall, I should be looking for a place to lay my head as the renovation begins in earnest in Derwood. But, by that time, the road trips will be strung together again for the visits to Chicago and Michigan at Christmas time, San Antonio and Gainesville for NewYear's, and Cumberland Island for a final round- up- - just before the Mindanao Mission and the return to Malawi are planned.
So, this is an active period in the "turning of the wheel" as the cycles of the season are well- watered by the record May showers which have knocked down the azalea blooms and popped open the mountain laurel and rhododendrons of Derwood. The deer which were sheltering from the showers under these trees were "equal opportunity browsers" and were happy to see the recycling of the spring season to find a soft spot in the fallen leaves to drop fawns next week, while the paired geese are shepherding fluffy goslings around from last week's hatching. I may have a re- feathered nest of my own by this same spring time come the next turning of the seasonal wheel, so we will watch these changes with interest.
So, we will watch- - from a safe distance- - as these plans and prospects take wing.
Since Memorial Day is traditionally celebrated as the start of summer, I wish you cool "season's greetings!"
Cheers!
GWG