Monday Musings - A Jar of Crap

Our friends from Romania came for the weekend for our annual Romania project budget meeting. We always have a lots of laughs when we get together and this time was no exception. They even brought back a jar of canned Crap!

Aren't you just dying to have a taste of that? ha! Actually, it's carp eggs, a lesser type of caviar, and no, I didn't eat any.

The paperwork behind is the year update of what our organization has done in the medical field in the villages around Brasov with the recent acquisition of a mobile medical unit. A major discovery has been in the area of TB testing, where over 50% of 300 people tested were found to be positive. Because they were diagnosed before severe symptoms had set in, the treatment is shorter and non-disruptive, so important for families where the bread-maker can't afford to miss even one day's work.

Another great outcome of the year is another successful medical training conference where doctors from the west teach doctors from the east how to perform tricky congenital malformation correction surgery. Many children in eastern Europe are still being born with defects as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. Over eighty children have had free corrective surgery by participating in conferences.

Me with a few Romanian farm kids, spring 2011

Another great thing coming in 2012 for me is the opportunity to spend two months in the fall in Brasov teaching English to the children in a couple farm villages. I'll also be helping out with eye testing with the mobile medical unit. I'm really excited to participate in this.

Town square, Brasov Romania

This post isn't specifically writing related, but it does fit with the concept that you need to get out and do stuff, in order to keep creativity alive. What kind of none-writing "stuff" do you do to keep your creative juices flowing?