Volunteer Mission to Juarez

A few weeks ago, I travelled to El Paso, Texas to visit a friend of mine and to run a medical / dental clinic in neighboring Juarez, Mexico. This was only my second time visiting El Paso - the first was about 15 years ago when my family did a driving tour of the Southwest, going as far as El Paso before turning around and heading back to California.

I have to admit that I enjoyed El Paso more than I thought I would. I barely remembered it from my first trip. Interestingly, El Paso is at about 4,000 ft above sea level and it is also quite dry. So, I had to drink extra water to stay hydrated. People are very friendly in this town and life moves much slower than it does on either the West Coast or East Coast. The city is about 90% Hispanic and Spanish is probably more common than English. Of course, the Mexican food there is excellent and very authentic. Maybe the best thing about the city is its natural beauty. Thunder storms are common there with high winds. The air is very clean and mountains are jagged and imposing. The desert scenery is quite picturesque. While in El Paso, I visited the Kool Smiles clinic where my friend Neil works as a dentist and met many of his friends.

Of course, the main purpose of the visit to El Paso was to run a free medical / dental clinic in Juarez through our non-profit, HealthCare Volunteer. We partnered with a group called CHIA Missions to run the clinic. The volunteer team consisted of one doctor, four dentists, 10 other volunteers. We left for Juarez early on Sunday morning and setup our clinic at 9am. We had no trouble going into Mexico - there was no line nor did we get searched. This was significant because the previous day our partners at CHIA Missions told us not to bring a lot of medical equipment because we hadn't registered it in advance and we could be turned back to the US or imprisoned if we were searched. As a result, we left a lot of useful equipment behind - and we weren't even searched. The clinic ran smoothly throughout the day and we were given great lunch by the pastor of the church. At 5pm we closed shop having treated 38 dental patients and 22 medical patients - ranging from kids to the elderly. Neil let me do a bit of dental assisting, despite my lack of clinical experience, which was a rewarding experience. That experience has made me more interested in helping non-clinical people do clinical volunteering. I came back and bought the books "Where there is no Dentist" and "Where there is no Doctor" to learn more about how I can provide dental / medical treatment in places in the world where dental / medical professionals don't exist or are lacking.

When people think of Juarez, they think of 1) drug violence and 2) swine flu. I encountered neither on this trip. I was a little nervous the night before, but as soon as we got into Juarez I felt completely safe. Maybe these things are bigger problems elsewhere in Juarez, but not where we were. I've now been to a few 'dangerous' places and things have worked out fine for me. I enjoy going to these places because it adds an element of excitement to the trip. I try to do everything safely to minimize the risks but some risks will always remain.

Our organization learned a lot through this experience. We will certainly do this again - but we don't know when or where. If possible, I will try to make it. I do a lot of administrative work for HealthCare Volunteer which needs to be done for our organization to survive and to grow, but finally being able to work with my hands to treat patients and rest after a hard day's work is the satisfaction that I have been waiting for.

Summer's here

Wow, it's been more than a month since my last post. Chalk that up to a busy last month of school which had me working on an engineering biotech project, engineering biotech final, a lab report, an in-class biochemistry final, a take-home biochemistry final, and a final presentation for PBG. How did all of that go? I don't know, I haven't checked my grades (and don't plan to until mid June). I like to wait long enough until I don't care anymore what my grades were before I check them. It's a mind game I play on myself.

Overall, the semester was good. I enjoyed the classes - the teaching could have been better in several places, but the subject matter was really interesting. And I really lucked out with my PBG consulting project. Not everyone had a good experience with their project, but I was fortunate to have a good team, good project, and good client. I learned a lot about drug pricing and pharmaceutical marketing practices. Serving on the international council of GAPSA was also a good experience - we got to work on a lot of important issues for international students. International students, I learned, have faced a lot of difficulties due to the economic recession including greater difficulty in securing loans for their education. I also adjusted pretty well to Philly. It's a manageable city with down-to-earth people and getting around is really quick and easy.

I'm excited about spending my summer in Philly. This place is really alive in the spring and summer. I will be doing a 2-month project for the client I worked for in the spring that builds off our previous project. I'm also taking Immunology at Penn, which will count toward my course requirements. For fun, I'm taking Arabic I at Temple University. I've always liked the Arabic script and I thought I might learn some words that would help me with Hindi. Of course, there is always HealthCare Volunteer work to be done. We are currently preparing for a volunteering trip to Mexico next weekend. We're hoping for a safe and rewarding experience for everyone involved.

Twitter - Am I missing something?

Twitter seems to be the new craze, but I'm just not getting into it. Sure, I've signed up for an account, but I haven't posted anything there.


Now, as a disclaimer, I have a tendency to get into trends late. For instance, although I have had a Gmail account since the time when Gmail came out, I only realized in the last few months that Gmail was better than Yahoo mail. And now I'm in the slow process of phasing out my Yahoo account.

But still, I don't get the value of Twitter. But it seems that the point of Twitter is to take Facebook's status messages and just amplify it manifold it. The reason that I don't get Twitter is that most of the time the status updates are pointless and I don't care to read them. Once in a while, someone says something of value on their status message, but the rest of the time, it's something I don't care about like 'I had a sandwich for lunch'. Well great. You didn't need to announce that to the world. Yes, I use status messages on Facebook, but I try to use it sparingly so I don't overwhelm all my friends and annoy them.

So there you have it. I don't use Twitter and don't plan to unless I have totally overlooked some really cool feature. But I don't think I have.

And it's finally live!

A few weeks ago, after months of development, HealthCare Volunteer went live with its new website. The web development was done by Visual Sparks, a firm in Dubai. We are all very pleased with the new website. Check it out and let me know what you think! We're always looking for feedback to make the website better. If you're interested, you can sign up for a volunteering profile and network with other volunteers.

http://www.healthcarevolunteer.com/

Ode to Trader Joe's

For most of my life, I have not been a fan of Trader Joe's. The store seemed strange and I didn't recognize any of the brands there. When I moved here to Philadelphia, I had only two grocery options: Trader Joe's (at 21st and Market) and Rite Aid (corner of 23rd and Walnut). Rite Aid has groceries? Well not really. Just some cereals, milk, junk food, etc. So I went to Trader Joe's.

Initially, I was frustrated by the long lines and lack of familiar items. But over time, I have become Trader Joe's biggest fan. Here's why:

1. It's Cheap. I think that comparable items are, on average, 5-10% cheaper at Trader Joes than they are at traditional grocery stores like Safeway.
2. It's Healthy. You won't find a lot of junk food, but that's not to say that everything is 0 Calories and 0 Fat. You will get less healthy food, but it's not as bad as other places. Also, Trader Joes products are as close to 'all natural', so you can avoid potentially unhealthy chemicals. I've noticed that after a few weeks of eating Trader Joes' food, I have more energy and feel lighter on my feet. There is something to be said for natural indgredients - maybe it's just easier for the body to metabolize.
3. Variety. You can get some pretty different things over here. Trader Joes' goes all over the world to find interesting concotions to put in their stores.
4. Good music. Trader Joes plays good music in its stores - or at least it does in the Philadelphia one. Usually I get to listen to classic rock.
5. Free samples. There are always free samples at one of the booths, and they are really good.
6. Taste. By making their products 'all natural' and being very selective, Trader Joes has succeeded in making their food taste distinctively better than competitors' foods. This took me a while to realize, but it is true. From the bread to the frozen food, there is a difference in taste.

So there you have it. I think I need to make a Trader Joes run this weekend.

Bolt Bus

Hey folks, Bolt Bus is currently the best way to travel from Philly to NYC. I have taken Septa to Trenton and NJ Transit to NYC. This is a slow, relatively expensive, and annoying trip because of the transfer in Trenton. The bus is a better option, although you may have to contend with traffic. But traffic aside, which bus should you take? The Chinatown bus? Greyhound? Neither. Take Bolt Bus. Bolt Bus is cheap - it can even be as cheap at $1. I paid $13.50 each way from Philly to NYC. It's also fairly comfortable with reclining seats. And the best thing about Bolt Bus, as the name implies, is its connectivity. Each seat as a socket and the bus has Wi-Fi. I didn't use these features on my ride to NYC (a 2 hour journey), but it can be useful on longer trips. Pretty cool, eh?

Oh, and the rest of the weekend in NYC was awesome! I got to see some friends who I haven't seen in ages. I walked pretty much everywhere (downtown, upper east side, etc.) because the weather was nice. Happy days.

A New Application of Lasers

Mosquito obliteration. Every now and then, science comes up with something that really changes our lives. Well, this is one of them.
A laser that obliterates mosquitoes: millions of them in minutes. It works by identifying the audio frequency of the beating wings. As is stated in the article: "There is no such thing as a good mosquito, there's nothing that feeds exclusively on them. No one would miss mosquitoes". That's what I've been saying all along! My India experience would have been better by a factor of at least 2 if this thing were in commercial use.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/16/mosquito.laser.weapon/index.html