Greetings friends and family:
I am honored to be leaving soon on assignment with MSF (Medicines sans Frontieres) otherwise known as Doctors without Borders. I havn't left town yet and it has already been an entertaining journey.
After detailing my life story in the application, there were individual and group interviews, a one month "on call" status where I was prepared to leave within 48 hours, an aborted assignment to Kenya, a gazillion forms to fill out, and you will all be pleased to hear I have a clean arrest record from the CBI( Colorado Bureau of Investigation), not to mention I am on first name basis with the County Clerk and the Secretary of the State. Alas three weeks ago, I received the FINAL assignment to the war-torn, disease ridden area in former Soviet Union, a place I had never heard of. Abkhazia, a disputed territory in the Republic of Georgia will be home for the next 6 months.
I will be working in an area with the world's highest prevalence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis providing hospital and home-based care, along with a team of nurses and social workers, to the most vulnerable Abkhazians, many of whom are displaced persons from the recent war last summer(occuring during the Olympics).
And so, I depart on March 1st with excitement, openness and intention to give my very best to folks who will teach me more than I will give, I am sure.
Thanks for joining me on this journey, I will share as much as I am able, with the constraints placed on all MSF humanitarian aid workers to be neutral, impartial and non-judgmental towards those whom we are serving, and respectful towards those in the host country.
My work and the world around me will no doubt shift daily, with surprises and challenges at every every doorstep. I intend to carry and use the wisdom, kindness, "smarts", and love that each of you have given me.
Whahoooooooo, I'm headin' out in 8 days.
PS - If I can figure out this blogging, you can too!!!! Enjoy!!!!!! Genie

I'm headed for Abkhazia

Sukhumi, on the eastern shores of the Black Sea is my final destination -
but you are saying I still don't have a clue where this is...... it's in former Soviet Union territory, in the far southwestern corner of Russia. More later about the political and cultural interests.