Monkey Brain Musings

June 19,2025  Good morning and happy Juneteenth! I was hoping to write last night, but a storm came through and we kept losing power, so here we are. Before I forget, thank you for the comments on the blogposts. I do read them, but for some reason I have not been able to reply, so I will try to respond in the following posts. Diane, this is a shorter trip than usual, only a little over 2 weeks long. I will leave Uganda on July 2nd, returning home on July 3rd. Yesterday was exhausting but rewarding. What started out as "We might have an ultrasound for you." quickly progressed to "We have another one for you!". My training on this trip is focused on the midwives that have already completed my 4-week basic course, working on advancing and fine tuning their scanning skills. Dinah was assigned to work with me for the day, so she would scan the patient first, we would discuss patient history, differential diagnosis options, ultrasound results, and treatment plans, then I ...

 June 17th, 2025 * I actually wrote this yesterday (Monday), but had some router issues, so here ya go! * Good morning from Atiak! Make yourselves comfortable, have I got a travel story for you. I left for the Sea-Tac airport at 10am Friday morning, getting a notification from Delta Air that my flight was delayed on the way...a harbinger of the weekend, perhaps? When I arrived at the counter to check in, I was asked for the credit card used to book the flight and a photo ID to match the credit card. I explained that I was traveling for business and that the flight arrangements were made by the company that was traveling for, and confirmed that the reservation was in my name. The agent I was dealing with was lovely, however she had to call over a manager who was not. In a very snarky tone it was explained to me that this was something Delta did to ensure THEY were not victims of fraud. They said that if I could reach the person who booked the flight they could FaceTime me and prove ...

 6/12/2025 Hi Folks! I am all packed up and ready for take-off tomorrow, after the challenge of packing! 😂 More about that in a moment, but first I have a very exciting announcement... thanks to your incredible generosity, we have been able to finance the building of 4 huts at the birth center!!!  🛖🛖🛖🛖Rachel is beside herself and so incredibly grateful. 😍 I have been trying to attach a video of the groundbreaking for the first one, but I am having technical difficulties and can't seem to get it to play. I will leave it in, in case it is an issue with my computer, but I promise to send more photos when I arrive! Rachel has told me that my hut is almost finished, but the remaining huts will take a little more time, because it is rainy season. The hut roof is made from thatched dried grass, so new huts are usually built in the dry season, but they are trying to get mine finished in time for my visit.  As expected, there were some weight challenges when packing the prin...

 May 22, 2025 Hello again! Those of you who have been on this journey with me since the beginning (my first trip to Haiti in 2014!) know that the closer I get to a trip, the more you will hear from me. I love keeping you up on the progress and planning part of my volunteer work. It makes me feel like we are all in this together and also fills a much-needed void now that my parents are gone. My mother was quite the traveler and adventurer, and she led by example, which is why I often enjoy the planning as much as the trip! First, I would like to thank Mary (Bozie!) for the generous gift card to Staples. As I write this blog, I am actually taking a short break from organizing all of the training materials in preparation of printing. I would also like to thank Kathy, Arnold and LeeAnn, for their constant support and generosity. Which brings me to my next bit of news. Rachel and I had a wonderful phone call this week, planning for the trip, and discussing changes and progress at the bi...