I just recently finished, Better, by Atul Gawande, a general surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The book presents Western Medicine as a field which has made enormous progress in patient care over the past century (and even the past several decades), whether it be in reducing maternal mortality rates through anesthesia and Cesarian sections, or reducing [...]

I am sitting in a barricaded, air-conditioned internet cafe in Bamako, on the main East-West drag, the “route de Koulikoro”, somewhere between the Peace Corps Bureau and the Hotel Tamana. My mom’s visit to Mali came to a close last night when I accompanied her on the long taxi ride from our charming oasis-like French hotel [...]

Two weeks ago, I did something incredibly naive, especially given the fact that I am now a second year volunteer and should know better: I travelled shortly before seliba, or Tabaski, the most anticipated holiday in Mali. To give a little context, Tabaski is a Muslim holiday, during which Muslims who have the means to do [...]

I am not sure what the protocol should be in terms of maintaining the privacy of my villagers as far as this blog is concerned, but the fact is, I don’t think any one reading this will be meeting any of the people of Kola any time soon, if ever at all, so these names might just [...]

As I sit here alone in the fluorescent-colored Peace Corps bureau in Bamako, my pulse races. I don’t really know why I am so nervous about this, but starting a blog is actually quite stressful. The strange techno music that just came in on my ipod isn’t helping much. I am hesitant about posting my thoughts so publicly because: a) I am [...]