The first order of business was traveling to Morgantown, West Virginia to take a tropical medicine course with the four other fellows at West Virginia University. We spent eight weeks in June and July learning about all of the "-iasis" diseases (e.g., leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, paragonimiasis, trypanosomiasis, tuberculoiasis, malariasis, etc).
The class was incredible! I feel like it really cemented deep into my sulci the tropical medicine topics I had glossed over in medical school. But even more than the education, I'm thankful for the time to get to know the other four fellows with which I would share this year of training. For most of our time there the five of us stayed in a little 4-bedroom cottage that really afforded us the opportunity to get to know each other REALLY well. Looking back on it, I'm thankful for the tight quarters, because I know our proximity aided greatly in our bonding experiences. Like the weekend we risked life and limb to float the Lower Yough (pronounced Yok). With Class III and IV rapids behind us, we swelled with a sense of pride that we finished the day without turning our raft over. Yet secretly we yearned for the greater challenge of the Class V rapids of the Upper Yough, a frustration we released in song, one of our many "improv" songs of the summer. Other notable improv songs included "Tsetse fly" in the style of "American Pie," "Reduviid bug" in the style of Billy Joel's "Piano Man," and our "Tropical Medicine Improv" with such great lines as:
We met a man, his name is Greg Juckett
He made me bring my poop to class in a bucket
Overall, as we scaled back our lifestyles, studied tropical medicine, learned to depend on the Lord and each other, this summer was a great start to the International Fellowship.
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