Ready to go!

Well, the bags are packed and we're ready to go... do you feel a song coming on?

Bill is handcarrying one of the Sonosite systems that is destined for one of six rural clinics. The imaging on these portable systems is great and certainly provides the information the nurses need to make referrals to Koutiala hospital. The units are battery-powered via solar panels - very efficient! After this trip, 5 of the 6 clinics will be trained and fully operational with ultrasound. One more to go!

Besides sending teams like us all over the world in areas of high poverty, Medical Teams International is often first on the ground in disaster recovery. You may have heard that several organizations from the Pacific NW have sent teams to Haiti to assist in the disaster recovery - among the first in the air was Medical Teams International! If you're planning on donating towards these efforts, and are looking for a great organization, I'd highly recommend Medical Teams International. They're great! The link to their site is http://www.medicalteams.org/sf/home.aspx  or through the logo on this blog's title page. And no, I'm not encouraged or paid to say this. I've been very impressed with the entire organization and more than 97% of donations go directly into the programs.

Next note will be from Koutiala...  Tooro te (Tohdoh tay)... that is, All is fine.

Going Back to Koutiala, Mali

I can't believe we are less than a week away of returning to Mali! I feel so blessed to be invited back to continue with the ultrasound teaching program at Koutiala Women's and Childrens Hospital. In case you missed the link on the title page, here's the link to the hospital:    http://www.koutialahospital.org/   The team there has done a nice job describing what they do there - take a peak! It is very exciting for me to go back and see this fine group of servants and to see what progress our prior students have made.

We will be accompanied by our team Africa leader, Debbie Doty. In addition, a team from the Harvard Medical School of Global Health (I'll need to get the official title later...) is joining us to do a program assessment. This team consists of Melody, OB/Gyn physician and researcher and Claire, a researcher. Claire speaks French and Bambara (from her time in Mali), so she will be VERY helpful! We look forward to their input and analysis of this program.

So, we leave Seattle on Saturday. Debbie, Bill & I will meet Melody and Claire in Paris, on route to Bamako, Mali (the capital). We will arrive in Koutiala on Monday afternoon. Can you spell looonnngggg journey!