A column of volcanic sand
David Gullette Boston, Massachusetts, USA The original all-concrete BioSand Filters we made for many years. 330 lbs without its sand. Why shouldn’t a retired English professor devote himself to Public Health? I fell hard for Nicaragua in the 1980s, organizing Boston academics against Contra aid, visiting the country in 1986 with Father Steve Chinlund, […]
Nothing prepares you for this
Anne L. Rooney Oak Park, Illinois, USA Photo by Medici con I’Africa Cuamm There are never enough beds. Seventy women lie side by side on the floor of a hospital ward intended for thirty patients. Some sleep on torn brown blankets on the cement floor. Those lucky enough to have a bed have neither […]
Behind the green partition
James Smith United Kingdom Author’s note Any attempt to truly understand the impact of humanitarian crises on individual lives, particularly when perpetuated over the course of many years, may feel like an ever-receding ambition for those invested in humanitarian response. This is further complicated by sectoral advocacy strategies and programmes that speak of aggregate […]
A visit to New York: a wonderful town
George Dunea Originally published in the British Medical Journal, December 8, 1979. New York remains exciting, vast, wonderfully alive. On Fifth Avenue, elegant ladies promenade in the sun, ride in horse carriages, spend their money at Gucci’s and Tiffany’s, or cast wistful eyes at the window where Empress Josephine’s tiara and the emerald-studded crown […]
Beyond negativity
Lynn Veach Sadler Pittsboro, North Carolina, United States Photography by leniners My husband Emory and I have traveled to China five times since participating in the (Eisenhower) People to People’s Citizen Ambassador Program from May 21 through June 2, 1995. Then we were members of a “Biofeedback Delegation to the People’s Republic of China” and visited […]
Doctor on an expedition to the Antarctic
Bryan Walpole Hobart, Tasmania It is 0330, half an hour before change of watch. The sun low in the southeast glares painfully onto the bridge. Here at sixty-two degrees south icebergs abound, radar looks like a polka dot quilt, and a continuous layer of pancake ice with nasty growlers on the surface and a […]
Taking note from nature: the wild heart of Panama
Rachel Kowalczyk Chicago, Illinois, United States Nightfall, Isla Palenque Photograph by Mike Corey It is a curious country, Panama, one-third protected wilderness and nearly 60% forested, best known for its canal, a colossal feat of human engineering. Having acquired a second hand experience of the country by editing a blog dedicated to travel in […]
Hope, health and healing on the Tiber
Kathleen L. Taylor and Mary Ann McDermott, Chicago, Illinois, USA Isola Tiberina is a fascinating yet frequently overlooked island in the heart of the Eternal City. It includes ancient Roman ruins, a historic church, and a large major hospital. Viewed from above, Isola Tiberina has the shape of a ship with two bridges serving as […]
Body heat: September 1944
Winona Winkler Wendth Lancaster, Massachusetts, United States I traveled up to Terezin against my will. My writing instructor had made the assignment. “Just write down what you see,” he said at nine in the morning while we squeezed into the aisle of a public bus headed out from Prague. The vehicle was packed with […]
Of starlit huts and Sahelian sand
Sara Buck Chicago, Illinois, United States Car rapide by Ferdinand Reus, originally posted to Flickr Landing in Dakar airport, the Air Afrique flight from New York hummed into the humid night air. Having traversed the nocturnal waters of the Atlantic, our plane descended upon the capital city, its sparse lights glittering along the coast […]