Afghani Egyptian Docs

This was taken at a conference where Afghani docs, Egyptian docs and US docs all got together to talk about common problems here in Afghanistan like tuberculosis, leishmaniasis and problems with getting immunizations distributed for diseases like polio and measles.

Egyptian Clinic Pictures

more photos of the clinic

With what we are trying to do I've really dedicated a lot more time to the Egyptian hospital. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I'd be developing relationships with Egyptian doctors. Truthfully, I really enjoy these docs. We have completely different views on a lot of fundamental issues. Democracy, freedom of speech, women's rights, morality and modesty are all common topics that we talk about and differ on -- but medicine brings us together. We sit down and go to work to take care of people. Below are a few pictures of Dr. Shawqi and I in the pediatric clinic

new photos!

These are a few more pictures from the Egyptian Hospital. Every time I go there it is a completely fascinating, terrible, funny, sad, frustrating and yet fulfilling experience. The mothers all wear burka's and rarely will lift one up to talk to me (not that I can understand very much). It's odd as can be to talk to somebody who is all covered up even if there is a little grill to look through. The children are sometimes afraid of me and at other times are fascinated -- but for the most part they are just like kids back home. They smile and grin. They cry and are afraid when I try to examine them. I am always dying to take pictures but as soon as I pull out the camera the scene always changes. The girl in the middle has scars from a disease called leishmaniasis. It's often called the most neglected disease in the world. 22% of Afghani's have scars from the disease. She had the misfortune of having three lesions and thus three scars on her face. The last picture is just of the outside of the peds clinic on a male day when the crowd is really small.Usually it's tough to even get to the door.

more adventures of little bear!

Well, Little Bear has been busy. It was time for yet another Anthrax shot and Little Bear helped me out by delivering it for me! It's all good though -- nothing like a BACON BANDAID to make me feel better when it was all over. Will I ever get another of these? Who knows...


I've avoided doing any shopping at all but the othr day I dropped into a rug store to check out the rugs. We could use something to go on the new wood floors at home, eh? There are a lot of nice rugs but none bought on this day...never had quite enough red in them....


Now this last picture is a bit like a sail. In fact, I call it the, "Sail"! Our Command Sergeant Major had some of the Soldiers build this -- it's a large version of our unit symbol but it was not quite finished yet when I took the picture. It really is humongous! And the wind blows like mad here and the 'sail' is facing right into the wind. It really is pretty cool. I'll get a picture of the finished project later.