Sep 15, 2015
CULTURAL IDENTITY
Pablo Neruda had written that if you do not know or have a cultural identity, you are like a boat without an anchor, moving where the wind takes you, without…
Stories
Field notes from the road
Medicine, culture, travel, food, healing, and human stories from my archive. Start with a trail, search for a memory, or move by year.
Roads, meals, clinics, and human encounters.Archive into inquiry
These field notes are not only memory. They are the ground from which my new field inquiries begin.
The current inquiry follows one trail through the archive: food culture, metabolic health, Indigenous knowledge, and Suriname.
Sep 15, 2015
NINE DAYS WITH ETIHAD AIRWAYS: BRASIL, ABU DHABI, SOUTH AFRICA, INDIA, BELGIUM
I am grateful for being able to travel more often, due to my unconventional lifestyle. I had always wanted to travel, and still maintain that the desire to travel and…
Aug 15, 2015
FOOD, WINE AND GOOD CONVERSATION: A JEWISH FAMILY IN AFRICA
If I had travelled the eight hours on an Etihad Airways flight, then taken the train to the centre of town, checked into a Hilton Hotel and then went to…
Aug 15, 2015
THE SENSATION OF BELONGING EVERYWHERE…WAITERS GREETING YOU IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES
LIFE OF LONGING, LIVED IN THE MOMENT AND WITH SPECIAL AFFECTIONS I like this sensation. What part of the brain is stimulated or excited? AA Flight to BOG. Seat 5H…
Aug 15, 2015
THE EXHILARATION AT FERNANDO BOTERO MUSEUM IN CANDELARIA
THE EXHILARATION AT FERNANDO BOTERO MUSEUM IN CANDELARIA, BOGOTA… WHICH PART OF OUR BRAIN DOES GET STIMULATED? Bogota has that vague familiarity as one drives through, the ochre colours of…
Aug 15, 2015
WELCOME HOME TO NATIVE AMERICA: MY HOME IS IN THEIR HEARTS
WELCOME HOME A NATIVE AMERICAN WELCOME One of the greatest gifts in my life has been my choice to work with American Indians. The plans were to finish my post…
Aug 15, 2015
EL INDIO IN MEXICO: A CASE OF DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP
EL INDIO IN MEXICO: A CASE OF DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP We hear about the importance of doctor-patient relationship but we don’t hear about the extraordinary relationships between Doctors and Patients. I…
Jul 15, 2015
ROMANCE IN THE TIME OF THE MONSOON
Romance in the time of the Monsoon How can I not think of Gabo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, when I am wandering around this lovely small town of Fort Cochin? I…
Jun 15, 2015
TRANSACTIONS OF SYMBOLS: A FREQUENT FLIER STORY
TRANSACTIONS OF SYMBOLS: A FREQUENT FLIER STORY I just had a wonderful trip on Etihad Airways, very content, despite it being 15 hours in length. It was good to observe…
Jun 15, 2015
BEST THING ABOUT ABU DHABI IS KERALA!
BEST THING ABOUT ABU DHABI IS KERALA! And the other foreign workers from Asia I had a 12 hour transit in AUH recently, in a strange and imaginative itinerary, coming…
Apr 15, 2015
PLEA FOR UNIVERSALISATION RATHER THAN GLOBALIZATION OF EDUCATION AND TALENT
A PLEA FOR UNIVERSALISATION RATHER THAN GLOBALIZATION OF EDUCATION AND TALENT BBC had an article about Access and Attainment of Education in Developing countries. Every one realizes that access to…
Apr 15, 2015
HAVANA: A MOVEABLE FEAST OF EMOTIONS
At a personal level; Friendships so deep that it is like a tattoo in your heart. Intellectual: discourses with a human face. society at the street level Food Burritos de…
Apr 15, 2015
WARM, FRIENDLY, GENEROUS FRIENDS AND SEDER IN MIAMI
Just a few days ago I was in Fort Cochin, was wondering where I would spend the first night of Pesach! No invitation was forthcoming from Portland, Oregon so I…
Apr 15, 2015
OFFER DIGNITY TO OTHERS AND YOU WILL RECEIVE DIGNITY IN RETURN
Two incidents on my recent travels to the East stand out, emphasizing what my close friend the psychologist AA in La Habana said to me: You thrive on human relationships…
Apr 15, 2015
MALAYALEE MEMORY
I wrote this in 2008! On my recent visit in March 2015, it was as true as it was before: The Malayalee Memory or is it everywhere they are In…
Apr 15, 2015
MALA SYNAGOGUE, AN ENCHANTING EXAMPLE OF KERALA JEWISH SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
Nowhere in the world, can one witness the harmony between the religions and cultures as one sees in this part of Kerala. This is not a politically correct behavior imposed…
Mar 15, 2015
Visiting With Purpose Or Just Passing
VISITING WITH A PURPOSE OR JUST PASSING THROUGH I can recognize two types of Tourists: one group that is passing through, they didn’t come here because they have any special…
Mar 15, 2015
44 hours of Journey from North American Indians to Indians of India
It took me forty four hours of travel By car from the Indian Reservation to the airport in Omaha, Nebraska and then a short flight to Chicago. Waited for the…