Tag Archives: Travel

Asclepius at Epidaurus

August 13, 2020

L. J. Sandlow George Dunea Chicago, Illinois, United States   An Athenian seeking a cure for his afflictions in the fourth century BC had the option of visiting several competing sanctuaries, at Delphi, Olympia, or Epidaurus. To reach Epidaurus, the Athenian would bypass Megara and Corinth, then turn south and find himself at the shrine […]

The hospital that treated patients with music

August 5, 2020

L. J. Sandlow Chicago, Illinois, United States   High up in the mountains of Anatolia, bordering the Black Sea, lies the ancient hospital of Bimarhane or Darüşşida. Located in the city of Amasya, it was built during the reign of the Ilkanid Sultan Mehmet and his wife Uduz Olcaytu Anbar and constructed by Babe Bin […]

Running in my blood

April 7, 2020

Niina Majaniemi Pirkanmaa, Finland   Picture from Marathon Photos.com. Source Some people are drawn to dancing, others to traveling or baking cakes. My passion is to torture myself by running for twenty-six miles, usually in very hot weather. Why? I could give you countless reasons. The thrill. The sense of achievement. Pushing boundaries. The blood […]

A column of volcanic sand

March 15, 2019

David Gullette Boston, Massachusetts, United States   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 […]

Behind the green partition

December 12, 2017

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

March 6, 2017

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

March 4, 2017

Lynn 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 educational […]

Doctor on an expedition to the Antarctic

January 27, 2017

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

January 27, 2017

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 […]

Of starlit huts and Sahelian sand

January 22, 2017

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 […]