Over the weekend I had several very worthwhile experiences. I got some chores done in Kigali, and then had dinner in the home of new friends, Cal and Mimi Wilson. Cal is a family medicine doctor and a faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver. He is UCD Director of the Capacity Building Project [...]

After getting a bit settled this morning (with local currency and cell phones), we set out to learn about the latest in public health here. We went to the US Embassy, where we were hosted by CDC’s mission chief, Dr. Pratima Raghunathan. We had lunch with some team members — they have nearly 50 CDC [...]

Will and I have embarked on our 2011 international trip, and have returned to Rwanda. Last year’s trip was so worthwhile that we decided that we should come back to this special place. We will be visiting friends we made when we were here in the summer of 2010, and making new ones. If you [...]

I had a very pleasant weekend in Kigali and beyond. One of the places I saw was the Hotel des Milles Collines, which was featured in the film Hotel Rwanda. On Saturday evening, I had a dinner meeting with the leader of the Anglican Church in Rwanda, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini and several others. Our church [...]

Today I had a very helpful meeting with Dr. Patrick Kyamanywa, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Rwanda. The med school is in Butare, where I will be in a few days, but he and I met in Kigali. Patrick is a surgeon, with an active medical practice, who [...]

Today I had the privilege of meeting with several health leaders here in Kigali. I was introduced to them via my friend, Nathan Thielman, MD, who is a faculty member at Duke Med School. Nathan is an internist who does work in infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, and global health. I visited with two Ob/Gyn physicians with [...]

Yesterday we had another full day in Trujillo. In the morning, Doug Morgan, Luis Diaz and I met with the student leaders of the UNT (National University of Trujillo) School of Medicine. In UNC terms, it was like meeting with the leadership of the Whitehead Medical Society, our student association. They are an obviously bright [...]

Last evening we left RDU, and flew overnight to Lima, Peru, via Miami. This is another in a series of trips I have taken in support of UNC's global health work. In 2007, I went to South Africa and Malawi. And in 2008, I took separate trips to Nicaragua and to China. This year's trip [...]

Over the past two days, we had very good meetings with several institutions –

I visited with Dr. Depei Liu, the president of Peking Union Medical College. He is also president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. In U.S. terms, that would be like his being head of one of our top health science centers, and also director of the NIH! We had very wide-ranging conversations about how we might partner, including the possibility of student and faculty exchanges.