As I sit here writing we are enjoying summer in West Virginia, where I am taking a global health course in clinical tropical medicine and traveler’s health. http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/som/tropmed/Tropical-Medicine-Course/.
West Virginia is the only state that lies completely within the Appalachian mountain range, and was formed after it broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War in 1863. Some have asked if we’re studying tropical medicine in West Virginia because it’s like the tropics. It is one of the poorer states in the Union economically, but the real reason is simply that several people experienced in tropical medicine at the WV University medical school created this great course for medical professionals to come and prepare medically for what they’ll see in Africa, Asia, and other tropical parts of the world where the diseases have a lot more to do with worms, flies, and mosquitoes than the heart attacks and strokes that we often see in Kansas. All that aside, now that it’s 90+ degrees and humid, it’s starting to feel a little tropical around here.
I never really adequately finished writing about our time in Ghana, as it passed by so quickly, and as soon as we returned home we found ourselves busy with wrapping up our time in Wichita and preparing to travel again. On our way home from Ghana we took an extended layover in Europe for several days with our friends Drew and Rachel where we saw some great historical sites and generally just relaxed, enjoying some days without responsibility or the need for ceiling fans day and night. The portions of Europe we saw had their own beauty, but they felt almost like we were back in the States already, with their paved sidewalks, green grass, drinkable water, and animals behind fences where one would think they should be.
The last part of May and June were filled with finishing residency responsibilities, saying goodbye to friends, packing for West Virginia, packing for Zimbabwe, packing for Wichita next Spring, packing for our upcoming move to Lakin, KS, etc... I’m so proud of my wife and her amazing flexibility. God blessed me with an amazing life partner who has been willing to jump into adventures that she had no way of seeing when she said yes to marrying me.
In the meantime, we’ll continue on here in West Virginia until mid-August when make a brief stop through Kansas to shift gears and gather up our things before heading off for almost five months at Karanda Mission Hospital (http://www.teamzimmoz.org/kmh.html) in Zimbabwe, located in the southeastern part of Africa just above South Africa.
The last part of May and June were filled with finishing residency responsibilities, saying goodbye to friends, packing for West Virginia, packing for Zimbabwe, packing for Wichita next Spring, packing for our upcoming move to Lakin, KS, etc... I’m so proud of my wife and her amazing flexibility. God blessed me with an amazing life partner who has been willing to jump into adventures that she had no way of seeing when she said yes to marrying me.
In the meantime, we’ll continue on here in West Virginia until mid-August when make a brief stop through Kansas to shift gears and gather up our things before heading off for almost five months at Karanda Mission Hospital (http://www.teamzimmoz.org/kmh.html) in Zimbabwe, located in the southeastern part of Africa just above South Africa.
