Christmas in Cologne

We are spending the Christmas season in Germany, thanks to the new (and early) arrival of Myrna Sofia.  She is doing a great job breaking in new parents, Kelly and Chris; and she has pretty well captured our whole-hearted attention also.  

As you can see the weather report does not include a white Christmas, but that doesn't stop all the outdoor Christmas Markts that include wonderful food and warm wine drinks (gluwein).

Camp Malibu

This trip was the first week of July, and was a 'working vacation' with an opportunity to care for 320+ high school campers and a volunteer workforce of over 100.  Thankfully I filled in with another doctor and his family, and we saw lots of minor injuries and illness, but had no campers that needed airlifting out.  Not that there weren't lots of risk-taking activities, and a three ring circus of fun-filled options.  But the real focus was a wonderful program and talks that shared faith and real life issues.  We experienced a wonderful community in the midst of spectacular scenery.... heaven anyone?

Salt Lake Heart-to-Heart

"A window of opportunity won't open itself."

Somehow dad made the most of a break in his own cancer treatment, and the improvement in how he felt to arrange tickets to fly to Salt Lake City with mom to visit David and Mary Ann. It was next to impossible for travel to occur the other way around.
But the window seemed to close, when dad had a hospitalization 12 days before the trip was scheduled. And David landed back in his hospital the week before. Still dad recovered, and was cleared to go just days ahead. And David was stabilized, albeit now closer than ever to be short-listed for a heart transplant. He was eager for the visit.
My role was to fly from Seattle, meet mom and dad in SLC and provide chauffeuring, facilitating, and hopefully no medical back-up. I was a bit cautious(skeptical) that this window would stay open long and wide enough over a weekend, to allow for lots of quality time.
So what happened? We had a great visit. Words were said and quality time was spent... somehow face-to-face time is even better than a phone call. Mom and Dad were inspirational just in their presence. David was inspired to share more hope and feelings and a plan for the rest of his life. Faith came up often. Life is seen with a much clearer focus when a life threatening illness is sitting in the same room. And we had at least two of these deadly 'elephants' in the room. They stayed at bay.

New Album 4/20/08 5:17 PM

Bob and Jamie's Wedding

We traveled to San Diego to celebrate a wedding, and it turned out that our Seattle-to-SD flight was a short hop compared to other long distance travelers.  Bob, as groom, came from his base in Japan, along with his bride Jamie.  My sister Laura (Bob's mother) flew in from Maine, along with dad Kent, who also served as the officiant at the wedding.

Many other members of Jamie's extended family came from her home in Florida, and others from Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas.

But the long distance awards went to my sister Lynn and her husband Rick, along with Bob's sister Sarah.... all who managed to come from New Zealand, via Germany.  That doesn't seem like the most direct route, but it worked for them.

Fortunately, my parents and Jamie's 'adopted parents' (John and Terry) have homes here.  We had the rehearsal dinner at the latter, and a Sunday breakfast for family at my parents.

The wedding itself was an out-door affair... picture perfect, albeit cool.  The reception warmed us all with good food and lively dancing.   

Vietnam mission

This was a trip to a unique and exotic culture. It was a trip backwards in history for me to find a new vision of Vietnam to overlay the experience of the Vietnam War years (they call it the American War).

It was primarily a field course for Barbara as co-leader of 10 nursing students from SPU. They did pediatric and community health training in a duel learning and outreach effort.

And then there were the collaborative interactions with the Vietnamese doctors that proved to be equal amounts of giving and of receiving knowledge and support. One more layer of training extended to having VN nursing students accompany us to the mountain villages.

For me, I had a separate opportunity to do two 2 hour classes a day for 24 total VN doctors. My given job was to go over medical terminology in terms of pronunciation. But as the course evolved it became one part rote repetition, and two parts teaching word entomology and applying the understanding to each of their specialties via case presentations. I came to a much deeper understanding of their medical culture, and hopefully they came to know me and know better the basis of words, not just their rote usage.

Finally there was the experience of a total retreat of 5 weeks with one group of people that became more than I expected. We told our stories, we related over patients, over meals, in one-on-one conversations, in times of need. We played games, we worked hard, we shared goals.

And then it was over. I can only trust some whisper of hope and some small breeze of our faith was felt by those we encountered. I know I ended up both drained with the length of intense time spent, and also sad that once we left this 'community', this 'family' we had created would be gone also.

It was a trip I put a lot into, got more out of,... and can't make again.

Vietnam Video

We have returned home, and have almost recovered from jet lag and re-entry shock. Instead of too many words, here is a video slide show that captures a bit of our view of Vietnam.

The first half is in Hue (pronounced 'way') and at the Central Pediatric Hospital. Some are pictures of the children and Vietnamese doctors. We worked side-by-side, then sang Karaoke at the end of the day. Other shots are of 'diplomats' of the course I taught, and of us having tea together. Many others are of cultural sites at the tombs and the 'forbidden city' of Hue.

The trip then moves by bus to the mountainous rural district of Nam Dong. Here we made rounds of various small clinics, along with another 1o Vietnamese and 2 Finnish nursing students. Our 10 students worked as a team with the others to assess patients and deliver health education. The ethnic people there are the KaTu. Barabara and LaRelle coordinated this very diverse project with much grace and perseverance!

In the end we celebrated with a hike up to a falls, and jumped in... scrub suits and all. Most importantly was the depth of not only the water... but of the relationships we formed, and the appreciation of another culture, and the power of being a Christian community in thought and in action.

Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived on time (if you consider a 17 hour time change and loss of a whole day 'on time'!) Yet we slept much of the way, and stayed up for a vety full day of touring and eating our way though the old Saigon. The bus ride through streets of streaming scooters is worth the price of admission... better than any video game for sheer close calls and action.

We saw lots of yellow and red decoration from the last days of Tet (New year holiday). I'll ttry to get some pictures, while I still have computer time. We leave for Hue soon. Hopefily more later.

Bridges

The headline picture(above) was from our stay in Oamaru NZ a year ago. It was a working vacation that was a bridge in many ways. It connected our past work with what is to come. It was a chance to connect us to a new world, but not lose our place back home. We gained a unique perspective standing there, looking both ways. Plus, we had a lot of fun and adventure exploring both islands(connected by a ferry, not a bridge) over 4 months of living in that unique country.

Now we are again off to build bridges to another culture, to some of our distant history, to other professionals and patients. We are getting ready to take off for almost 6 weeks in Vietnam.

This time it is Barbara's job that is providing the opportunity to travel while we work. She is in charge of 10 senior nursing students who will study in central Vietnam, in and around Hue. The first half of their training will be in a pediatric hospital. The second half will be in the more remote mountains doing community health work with a whole other culture.

My position is to try to be a support person. As a volunteer, I should have a little more flex time. But rather than let me totally free lance, I am assigned a course in Medical Terminology to give to the Vietnamese doctors. Thankfully, they already speak enough English to understand quite a bit; but they welcome the chance to get to learn more of the meaning of the roots of medical terms. It will be interesting to see how Greek and Latin, along with our profession, brings us together. It will be another interesting bridge to cross.... and hopefully meet each other half way.

So, are we ready? Yes and no. Barbara has another teacher to partner with, and LaRelle has done this work for years. She has strong connections both personally and through her agency's work in this area of Vietnam. Still Barbara has put in lots of preparation time, has been working already with the students, and has attended to the myriad details of how to anticipate all the challenges of living and working in a very different area of the world.

But as we prepare to step away from the comforts and electronics and food of home, there is a part of me that speaks up and says... "you are doing what? you really don't know what you are getting in to." And that is very true. But, just like I do when I cross a bridge that is a bit too high for me... and I really do tend to get dizzy.... once I have started, I try to only look ahead. Don't look down! I can't see that far to the other side yet. But I know there is more than I can fully imagine, or prepare for. And I know there has been a calling and a reason to go that is not yet fully revealed. And I am left to simply trust the one who made the bridge with much care and love.