By Bill Frist

Tracy and I are in Africa for two-weeks: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature Conservancy (intersection nature and health) in conjunction with Pathfinder International (global women’s health). As chairman of Hope Through Healing Hands, I will explore how we can globally impact peoples’ well-being and health by more smartly addressing and integrating: food and nutrition; clean water by protecting sources and exploring the power of social impact water funds; sustainable agricultural practices; environment and pollution; climate change and coastal impact; maternal and reproductive health; infant mortality and child health. The expertise of The Nature Conservancy – the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people – will be invaluable as we study in depth its science-based best practices in each of these areas. Internet access is intermittent, but I will share updates as I can.

By Jenny Eaton Dyer, PhD

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the National Association of Evangelicals Christian Student Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

The conference was led by Galen Carey, Vice President of Government Relations, and on the day I spoke, it was in the grand marble Kennedy Caucus room in the Russell Building on Capitol Hill.

By Tara Lane
I am finishing up my first week rotating at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. I have been participating on the ID consult service, and it is amazing how much I have learned over the past four days. The ID team has been very welcoming, and I am grateful for their teaching and patience, especially as I learn a new system.

By Jon Niconchuk
Jambo from Kenya! After barely escaping a rare Nashville snow storm and back to back 8 hour flights, we arrived safely in Nairobi (well, two of the three of us at least; our final companion missed a connection and made it the next morning.) Despite having been here once before, the drive down the hill into Kijabe was just as breathtaking. This idyllic oasis, this “place of the wind” nestled on the mountainside overlooking the ever-widening Great Rift Valley, remains as aesthetically beautiful as ever. With our comfortable guest house and nightly dinners waiting in the fridge, it is easy to lose sight of the reality of ever-present scarcity that exists all around. Yet as familiar faces welcomed me back to the operating theaters on Monday morning, I was reminded why AIC Kijabe Hospital – built from nothing over the past century – remains such a remarkable place. On our second morning in the ORs, one of the surgeons approached us hurriedly and said, “Dr. Jon, please go to the emergency ward, there has been a mass casualty.”