05-N0V-B-3
A LETTER TO THE RECENT EAGER APPLICANTS TO THE RWANDAN TRIP AS
FIRST-TIME EXPERIENCE FOR MEDICINE ABROAD
From: Glenn Geelhoed
To: mahmed60@hotmail.com
Date: 11/22/2005 4:06:07 PM
Subject: Welcome to the wonderful rewarding world of
medical mission service abroad in needy nations!
I was delighted by your call and your interest in
pursuing the kinds of highly fulfilling service in developing world
environments. It has been so habit‑forming,
that I can almost assure you now it will not be your last!
Let me get you started with a few basics to get You
even more excited and less uncertain about the abundant uncertainties out
there. the one rule we can count on is
that the need will always change from whatever careful plan we have, usually by
getting worse! However, we are already
counting on that so we adapt with all the flexibility that brought you to
consider this kind of opportunity n the first place! The single requirement is an immeasurably
high threshold of frustration. Remember:
"You cannot fall off the floor."
Many of the problems we face in our over‑developed world come form
surfeit rather than lack of everything‑‑food, water, energy, skill
information and good will. I think we
may be able to introduce you to people living in profound poverty, quite
possibly unlike anything you have seen before‑‑and whose spirit of
generosity despite that deprivation is quite humbling. I call this "Gifts from the
Poor." you may have to get used to
that; in addition to the mendicants who believe that a white face or someone
with shoes makes a ready target for easy redistribution of the earth's
bounties, you will encounter even more people who have next to nothing, but
will give it all to you.
Let me give you an appetizer or two. In simple introduction I have attached
"Welcome to the Wonders..." about planning a first mission to prepare
you‑‑don't worry that much about the mission itself yet, since
"this is not my first rodeo" and you are among friends who organize
things where little organization seems evident.
But that does not mean they have gone ahead to install power and
plumbing and cell phone towers. We are
participants in this process, not observers glancing out through the windows of
the A/C tour bus!
A quick and simple Web site address is
www.gwu.edu/~intmeded which may ask you "How do I get started in all this
anyhow?" You can scan at this shoal
level what comes next. That may be a book
or two: I might without any hint of bias recommend Out of Assa: Heart of the
Congo (see attached) or the more nitty gritty "Surgery and Healing in the
Developing World" (see attached) which will give you an idea of what to
bring along with you (and perhaps more importantly, what to leave behind‑‑a
lot of electronics, luggage and attitudes.)
If you are interested already in a particular site,
try the Home Page, which should allow you to click on the "On‑Line
Journal" for quite a few of the world's remote spots in day‑to‑day
descriptions of what these medical missions are like supported by a lot of
photojournalism. That can be accessed by
the web address http://home.gwu.edu/~gwg, but since the guru who should be
updating it "live" from reports wired back at the first site I reach
with a web on‑ramp has a backlog of over a year and when he does find a
few snatches may skip a few in posting them (the last time it was a year and a
half, or about ten missions) I am starting a blog to post to directly: http://hunterandgatherer.org
and that can direct you by the "index issue"‑‑a date like
05‑Aug‑B‑series, which would tell you all about Eritrea and
the recent surgical mission there. Some
of these missions have been run many times in the same sites and will change
and mature as we do increasing amounts of training to "indigenize"
the skills leaving supplies for the intervals.
In addition, I attach a PhotoWorks web access site to an on‑line
series of photo albums. You can call up
the pictures with the dates of the mission as you scroll back into the abundant
resources stored in virtual libraries. (see below)
My next mission is a surgical one to Mindanoa in the
Philippines, a fast ‑paced almost entirely operative experience that has
been running over a decade, based at first in the goiters so prevalent there
(over a thousand thyroidectomies have been done by our team already, and
standby for the next 100+ forthcoming next month!) The plans are posted in the attached 05‑Nov‑A‑2
The next screening medical clinic will be held in
Rwanda in sites at Kigali the capital and Gisenyi in the countryside. Pastor Jupa, a Methodist Rwandan pastor is
making the on‑the‑ground arrangements, and I am leading the trip in
a mission heavily oriented to education of those involved, many of them first‑timers,
and the logistics and travel arrangements are being made through Physicians For
Peace, the volunteer group that made our very satisfactory mission to Eritrea
possible. This will be a new field for
them this March and they are excited about it as a sustainable continuing
mission focus.
If you are motivated by a specific religious faith, be
aware that we treat all peoples in this hurting world in settings that vary
form Mother Teresa's Clinic in Ethiopia, to Buddhist Gompas in the Himalayas,
Islamic Zakat outside the mosques in Somaliland, and the Jewish Distribution Fund
at the Blue Nile Clinic, with even a Voodoo Priestess blessing me in
Haiti. I have my own convictions as you,
no doubt, do to, and you may share them as you see appropriate or not, which is
also quite acceptable. The only
prejudice I should share up front is that the people we see are not like us;
they are us, in every way accept that we who get there have expended far
more of this world's resources than they and they are adapted to their
constrained environments or they would not still be alive‑‑a lesson
we should learn form them. If anyone
treats any patient as other than the dignified and precious human life shared
within the esteem we have for our own families, they are relieved of patient
contact, since we are here to share and respect, not to impose or manipulate.
It is a great learning experience on both sides, and there is no one who
returns who is not convinced that they have received more than they have given
from a far more generous even if different stock of richness of spirit.
Now, to Rwanda!
The attached messages relates to the details and the expectations. I will council individually with each one who
might be asking "Just what is it that I can do? and may feel a little intimidated or
overwhelmed by it all. The answer, is,
of course, "Far more than you ever thought you might do." If that means you had always sort of wanted
to try your hand at neurosurgery to see if you should have made a go of that at
an earlier decision fork in the road you have taken to get here‑‑you
will be accorded the full privileges you might also have at your local referral
hospital to do so. But, under licensed
supervision and careful guidance, you will be asked to participate in assisting
others to do what it is that they are qualified to do or are in process of
becoming so. Assisting is what I do full
time, since we have not come to take over the care of the population but to
help elevate it in their own capabilities.
Dates, times, costs, and logistics are explained in
the 05‑Nov‑A‑8 as
continuously modified and enhanced as we go and accrue supplies. You will carry with you ONE bag for your own
supplies, and some things you might like to personally distribute (small toys,
stuffed animals or dolls are always a hit, and deflated soccer balls caused a
sensation as we pumped them up in Eritrea, even outdrawing the crowds that
gather when I pull out my usual pack of Frisbees.) But you will carry a second, bigger bag for
the mission to be checked in as your luggage‑‑a stock of medicines
( antibiotics, analgesics, ointments and other items, with a careful inventory
of what is inside, and all under my license and supervision to be given, never
sold, and all fresh agents, not dumped or dangerous products) sutures,
dressings, gloves, gowns, OR equipment and instruments depending on the mission
purpose. Since one experience you may
wish to "Give a Miss" to is what subsistence jails are like in the
Third World, I will carry some of the more significant agents, with licenses
attached‑‑I do not recommend discovering what the penalty for
"trafficking" in narcotics is in parts of the Islamic world. But don't worry your head over
this. We will distribute this as
appropriate, usually in a pre‑departure orientation get‑acquainted
packing party. Take old clothes and
running shoes, all but one set of which is making a one‑way trip. (I have very close and trusted advisors who
have helped suggest many items of my apparel they will help me pack!) Carry something in paper back to leave and
remember the usual sunscreen, personal meds, toiletries, sunglasses or backup
prescription pair of glasses if you need them to function. This is not a fashion safari, despite the
abundance of cameras around, and in a heartbeat, you will change focus from the
trivialities of such matters to what counts. I will help you individually with
questions of immunizations and prophylactic meds. What is supposed to be up to date at home is
good as a start (tetanus, hepatitis, vitamins) and what is special about certain
environments (e.g. equatorial, altitude, seasonal variation with rains and
mosquito breeding times factored in) will be announced to the group.
Take, read, you are going to LOVE it!
Cheers!
GWG
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