JUL-A-3
THE SMALL “SELECT” GROUP FOR THE NEPAL MISSION
COMPARED WITH THE DOUBLED NUMBERS FOR THE LADAKH MISSION
AND THE EXCHANGE OF LETTERS WITH ONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS EAGER TO
LEARN IF HE WERE AN APPROPRIATE PARTICIPANT
Dear friends,
Pasted below are your e-mail
addresses, so you can contact each other and
exchange information on your specialities and interests and get
to know
each other and the team make
up.
As of now only five of you
will be participating in this expedition and we
do not expect more to join
in. This is the smallest group we have ever had,
especially when
compared to the very popular Ladakh
-Chang Thang
Expedition, where we have 24
participants.
Glenn Geelhoed MD (Team Leader) msdgwg@gwumc.edu
Bruce Banwart MD (General Pediatrician & Pediatric
Critical Care.
<bbanwart@mcw.edu>
Steve Schultz DMD <forcep23@sprynet.com>
Gordie Polando (Paramedics) <gordiep@multiverse.com>
Kelly Cobb MD <kelly_cobb22@hotmail.com>
Ravi
I am glad you wrote and
introduced yourself!
Not one of us is a
"cookie cutter" product sent up from Central Casting! I am happy to have a variety of talents and
good generalists on board, since we will need several skills to go the
distance!
I have on the coming trip to
Ladakh an opera singer who just happens to be superb in many other parts of
real life, and a woman who called the
American College of Surgeons asking them to suggest someone who could tolerate
someone who had no background in medicine whatever, yet wanted to be involved
in surgery! If you talk to enough
people in those terms, eventually you would be referred to me!
I am concerned that people
who are going to be on such trips distinguish them from catered holidays, and
are very flexible and not demanding of "special" consideration, nor
are they bored when things evolve with which they have no expertise or
experience, or flip out when the work load accumulates and they do not feel up
to managing it.
On a few occasions we have
had dilettentes who wearied of doing good after the first couple of patients
were seen and wanted to be taken out for special entertainment, which is not
possible with limited resources and crowded high demand for services. Anyone who is more interested in
contributing to solutions than being a distracting problem needing special care
themselves is more than welcome, and you have special skills beyond the
interests you expressed in the dental practice close to you.
I think a prosthetist would be helpful, (of the kind who can create
helpful appliances out of re-rod!) or someone who can see certain needs that
are as simple as solutions to make hygeine easier. We give toothbrushes out along with toothbrushing instructions!
There is a single
requirement for third world work; that is---an infinitely high threshold of
frustration, and an earnest effort to go about practically addressing what can
be done despite the obstacles
You will fit in well because
of your attitude, I can tell already. I
have limited time for special coddling of pampered prima donnas, whom we have
had to reprimand occasionally for requiring more full-time care than our
patients who are supposed to be the needy ones! I know you will see those needs and respond to them, and I
welcome your contribution!
Cheers!
GWG
>>> "Gordie
Polando" <gordiep@multiverse.com>
06/29/01 04:40PM >>>
Dr. Geelhoed
My name is Gordie Polando
and I received your e-mail address from Ravi
Singh. I will be accompaning
you on the Lukla-Everest Base Camp trip in the
fall. I wanted to give you
some information on my background and find out if
there is anything you would
be expecting from me. I have not participated in
a program like this before
and would very much like you to know that I wish
to be a beneficial/working
member of the trip. I have a very varied
background and have attached
a copy of my CV - which is probably the easiest
way to introduce myself.
One item that is not on my
CV is that my wife is a dentist and I would be
more than willing to spend
some time with her learning instrument names and
general procedures to assist
if you, or the dentist which will be along,
thought that would be
beneficial.
I am looking forward to
meeting you and the other members in the fall.
Gordie Polando
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