Ilula-Friends-2020

Looking forward to a great experience and forming new relationships with my Shoulder to Shoulder and Illula colleagues!!

A first trip to Africa and this global health experience, shoulder to shoulder with the African healthcare workers is less than a month away. The excitement for this opportunity is building.  The idea has been percolating for around 10 years!

This is the initial post for the Tenth Annual Shoulder to Shoulder sponsored Ilula Lutheran Hospital (ILH) Winter Rotation (2020). In this space you will see essays written by our Travelers, Learners and Faculty. The writing will be reflections on the experience - perhaps there will be guests. At least I hope friends and relatives will chime in and think about what we are experiencing. For some of us, me included this will be multifaceted - a pilgrimage, a chance to visit longtime friends in Ilula and Iringa and, of course, an incredible opportunity to learn and perhaps teach. We are always a bit wary to make sure we are doing more good than harm while we are on the ILH campus and elsewhere. As wazungu (white people) we often blunder culturally. The best we can hope to do is to be genuinely curious and humble. This is not always easy to do when we see things that are so different from what we are used to, e.g. medically. I invite you as readers to offer your thoughts, concerns, co