She came into my office alone, without a family member as a guardian, and she didn’t want a student to sit in on our meeting; her issue...

The settings couldn’t have been more different. A couple years ago in rural Malawi I sat down with a team of two clinicians who provided...

I admit that my reflections talk about tea more than most other things, but to be fair, tea helps me connect and reflect more than most....

We expected Thoko and Nixon sometime this afternoon, but we were working on our computers as we waited. After a bit, I looked outside,...

“You knit me together in my mother’s womb” I begin, reading from Psalm 139. “Munandiumba ndisanadwe ine,” Thoko reads from the Chichewa...

I munched mindlessly on banana chips and a marshmallow. I should eat dinner. I knew better than to eat this junk food at all. But this...

It’s dry, cold season in Malawi. Most families have harvested, dried, and stored their maize so it can sustain them in the months ahead....

I’ve never spoken to 1000 people before. I might have thought it would have been more intimidating, that I might have prepared for days...

It wasn’t our first time in this garden; we’d been here with ice cream cones on Valentine’s Day and with my gardener on a reconnaissance...

I start the day with an evaluation for the village chief. He has tingling pain in his legs and I am concerned that it could be due to...

I wouldn’t have become a missionary doctor by chance. A pair of surgeons from the church that raised me encouraged me to pursue medicine...

I woke up at 6:00, just right because I went to bed early last night By 8:00 I’ve had some cups of tea, breakfast with Greg, jogging with...

For the last four months, I have enjoyed participating in an online tea community. I sipped and discussed a different tea daily with...

She sat in the dirt in the small, dark room. Her face bright, she sang from a tiny Swahili hymn book. I learned my first words of Swahili...

For the last few years, we have had to burn or bury our own trash. It really makes us come to terms with any wastefulness in our lives....

“You know the difference between Christians and Muslims, right?” I looked over at my last patient of the day, and paused mid-step in the...

Our new house came with a dog. He’s a sweet little village mut who has probably guarded this property his whole life. Affectionate and...

I’ve been caring for patients in creative ways during the past weeks, as I finalize logistics to start working in Lilongwe again. I...

“Have you ever felt so dizzy that you can’t remember which way is up?” George, Nkhoma’s newly-certified clinical officer, stared at me...

I cleared out my things from the office yesterday. The water filter will help Geerten stay hydrated, the tea set goes to Doreen, the...