by Adam | Feb 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
“Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King This blog entry and that one which will follow documents a bit of saved vacation time I used to travel between working at eye clinics in Rotorua, New Zealand and Honiara, Solomon Islands. Though it was vacation, I certainly pushed myself and learned a lot. I hope some of these things I learned might be educational or enriching to the reader in some way. But first, something about my last post. I referred to the Solomon Islands as a “third world country” and was kindly notified by a friend of mine that this terminology is outdated and can be offensive. She provided an NPR Article entitled: “If You Shouldn’t Call It The Third World, What Should You Call It?”. I was grateful for being informed of this. I felt a little dumb at first, but really was grateful for being enlightened on this topic. The truth is that the term is an outdated relic of the 20th century. Even “developing country” isn’t an accurate term because some lower income countries are more developed in certain aspects than certain countries which are considered advanced. The truth is different populations exist within single countries, and perhaps countries shouldn’t be classified as a whole in this respect. I’ve often use the term “underserved communities” to describe gaps...
by Adam | Feb 17, 2017 | Uncategorized
Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei. “Aim for the highest cloud so that if you miss it, you will hit a lofty mountain.” Maori Proverb From this point on, all posts were drafted either later in the trip or once I returned home. For a great portion of the trip I couldn’t really bring myself to type for fear of missing out (FOMO I believe its called). This paragraph was written while flying from Queenstown to Sydney on January 22nd while listening to Migrations, the new album by Bonobo. One of my favorite electronic music artists, and I marked my calendar and purchased it the day it came out. The other soundtrack to my trip thus far is the Moana soundtrack. I saw the film before the trip and absolutely loved it. I can relate to the struggle of finding balance between your place at home and the internal voice that calls you to sea, to discover new places. The film also features quite a bit of Polynesian/Maori mythology and culture. So picture me dressed up to see patients, walking 15 minutes to eye clinic in Rotorua listening to Moana. I found a little shortcut that crossed over a very beautiful section of Fairy Springs. Three ophthalmologists and a rotating registrar (resident) work at the Rotorua Eye Clinic along with a wonderful staff of secretaries and nurses. I spent the majority of time working with the registrar, TK. Like in Kenya, students start medical school directly after high school rather than completing an undergraduate degree. However, medical school is 6 years vs 4...
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