2011: The Year in Review

Christmas Barbie in Spar (the grocery store)

“Mr. Paul, Mr. Paul – come quick. There’s a python eating the guinea fowl!”

We were awaken the morning of Christmas eve by Joe, one of the Zimbabwean workers on the ostrich farm. As I lay in bed shaking the cobwebs out of my head, I think…where am I? And…did I just hear what I thought I heard? 

View from where we camped in Doro's Crater

My life on two continents continues to fascinate me and keep my days, weeks and months full and interesting. We started 2011 with a trip to Namibia. We traveled the way we like to, with no specific plan but a general direction we’ll head and a date we need to return. While the trip was soggy, it rained just about every day, I enjoyed visiting Etosha National Park – which I hadn’t been to before and had lots of nice wild life to see. I also found the isolation and beauty of the Doro’s Crater area breath-taking and we didn’t see another human for days.

Student Group at Dune 7, Namibia

The spring found me directing my third Africa study away program and each year the experiences challenge me to think more deeply about what I’m hoping the students will get out of the program and how best to facilitate the learning and growth that they often experience while traveling for nine weeks through South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. One of the highlights of the trip was an unplanned opportunity to see U2 in Cape Town at the new open soccer stadium build for the 2010 World Cup. What a great concert!

View from Santorini walk

During a quick stay in the States for April and part of May to finish off the semester, I made a quick trip to Westfield to see my family for Easter and a few friends. I was off again but this time back to Botswana via Greece (a destination that has been on my "bucket list" for years!). I presented a paper at a conference in Athens and then we headed off to meet Paul’s family in Crete for a week before we took a few days by ourselves to Santorini. From there we returned to Athens and then back to Botswana. I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition of the old and new in Athens (with the ever looming ruins over the city) and our amazing walk from Oia to Fira along the top of the caldera wall on Santorini. To be able to escape the crowds and see the stunning views of the ocean from so high up was a highlight of the trip.

My summer months (winter in Botswana) were filled with lots of safaris. I loved spending time in the bush and sharing my love of Botswana and its bird and animals with Paul’s clients. It was especially memorable to be part of dear Mischa’s spreading of his wife’s ashes in Tau pan and to enjoy the incredible good luck of the Smith’s when we saw so many interesting things from two sister mother lions and their six cubs to a curious brown hyena who watched us in unconvincing nonchalance.

August found me back at school for the Fall semester which was a busy one with the Medicine Program and my First Year Seminar on Global Health. My Freshmen worked hard and showed good progress in their writing over the course of the term and the Medicine Program, which incorporates my medical sociology course with a colleague’s medical ethics course and requires extensive field work observing in a local hospital was intense but well worth the effort. Like the study away programs, my preferred method of teaching is to incorporate real world experiences to help students better understand the course content. And…just like study away, it causes me to grow and learn right alongside my students. 

One of the most enduring memories of the hospital observations this fall was of a young (maybe 4 or 5 year old) curly blond haired girl who came flying out of an examining room in the pediatric oncology clinic and darted behind the nurse’s station screaming, “I want my beads! I want my beads! I want my beads!” She was exuberant and joyous – two words one would never think they would use to describe a child going through cancer treatments. Her enthusiasm was directed at getting a couple more beads for a bracelets she was making charting her progress through her cancer treatment. Have a procedure, get a bead. Successful bone marrow aspiration, get a bead. Celebrate a birthday while in treatment, get a special birthday bead. The memory of this sticks with me as evidence of the strength of the human spirit. This girl should be miserable, terrified, distraught. But instead she brims with life. I am in awe. 

But not all memories of the fall were so heartwarming. With great sadness I finally made the decision to put my beloved dog Shelby to rest. She had really taken a turn for the worse over my absence in the summer. When I left in May we were still enjoying hour-long walks on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. But by the time I returned in August, she struggled to walk, every step appearing quite painful. Both her sight and hearing had diminished. She wandered at night aimlessly, often getting stuck between pieces of furniture and the wall. When the time finally came, she died with her head in my hands in her favorite chair.  Her absence leaves a big empty space in my life that is not soon to be filled. I miss her every day.

Fortunately, Paul was there with me at the tail end of his month long stay. We had a great time when he was in the States, taking motorcycle rides off in to the mountains to enjoy the fall foliage. We even took two short trips, one up to the mountains of North Carolina for my fall break and the other off to Birmingham to see some former clients who hosted our visit to try to drum up some business for the safari company. On the way back through Atlanta we stopped off at the Georgia aquarium and, after seeing the whale sharks, Paul is even more committed to getting back to scuba diving. Maybe next year…

Kids at Old Oaks Farms

We also found time to socialize with friends and even hosted a fun Sunday afternoon with cup cakes and kids at the farm to visit all the animals.

December brought a new arrival to the Sheller family with Paul’s first grandson, Arthur, born. We’ve had several opportunities for “Skype chats” since he arrived in early December. He is super cute and everyone seems to be doing very well. We look forward to a trip to Copenhagen in 2012 to meet him in person.

Nikolaj, Trine and Arthur

Here's wishing all my readers a belated festive season. I hope 2012 brings all that you hope for!