Archive for July, 2008

Really No Sacrifice At All – Angola Day 25

Friday, July 18th, 2008 |

  Giving medical care in Angola has it’s unique challenges: diseases rarely  encountered in the US, very limited medications and equipment, staff who seem to disappear, and precious little in the way of laboratory or X-ray so I often never know for sure what I’m actually treating.But then there are remarkable advantages, too. Medical insurance […]

Lost Baby Into Loving Arms – Angola Day 18

Monday, July 7th, 2008 |

  Four days ago I was summoned to the Kalukembe Hospital, 100 miles outside of the city of Lubango. Now Lubango has paved roads (some places), electricity, (sometimes), and running water (somedays). But in the outback of Kalukembe life has changed little in hundreds of years: simples houses built of dried adobe bricks, fields of […]

You Can Bring Hope Amid The Rubble

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 |

  May 12, 2008. Sichuan Province, China was hit by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. Human casualties are estimated to be over 71,000 fatalities with over 25,000 injured. Reports suggest that over 5 million people were left homeless and displaced (USAID, 2008).   Dr. Jeff DeGraffenreid, featured speaker at the 2008 Disaster Management Symposium, was one […]

The cost of peace – Angola Day 12

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 |

  I first worked in Angola during its civil war, and encountered all the injuries and disease of poverty one can possibly imagine: gun shots, land mines, measles, malaria, typhoid fever. What I did not see was HIV disease. While the rest of Africa was being ravaged by HIV, Angola was spared – largely because […]