Aspiring Broadway Singers...

This last Friday, Scotty Palmer and myself put on a performance of a lifetime. Our church had a fundraiser for the boy scouts in our ward, and they were asking people to perform at the event. I was asked to play a song on my guitar, but figured we could do much better than that. I got my buddy Scott to join me in performing "The Confrontation" from Les Miserables. (We had done it before). Here are a few pictures from our performance!

"3 days is all I need! Then I return...I pledge my word..."

"Men like you can never change...A man....such as YOU!!!!"

"There is no place for you to hide"

"I will be Theeeeerrreeee....."

Op-Ed with Newt and Gov Pawlenty

The following is an op-ed that I helped with. If you read far enough down, you will see that it mentions our demonstration project. Go Newt and Gov. Pawlenty!

http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=18189764

Mike

Gov. Tim Pawlenty: Health-care records lag technology
By NEWT GINGRICH and TIM PAWLENTY
April 27, 2008
The U.S. Census Bureau announced it will complete the 2010 census using the same method used in its first census in 1790: pen and paper. It's shocking that this massive undertaking won't utilize technology that is second-nature in our daily lives. Yet, there is a far more important part of our lives that remains as antiquated as the Census Bureau: health care.
Technologically, health care is at least a generation behind. Instead of using e-health records, roughly two-thirds of hospitals and nine out of 10 doctors rely on paper record-keeping. In today's society, it's akin to commuting by stagecoach.
Is it surprising then that our health-care system is riddled with problems?
Take patient safety. The Institute of Medicine reported that more than 1.5 million preventable medication injuries occur annually, while preventable medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans every year. Information technology can improve safety by alerting providers of medication errors, drug allergies or critical pieces of patient history.
Take rising costs. One contributing factor is that our medical records are locked away in filing cabinets. Since very few providers have a complete patient record, recent lab tests or scans are often reordered. Access to up-to-date information would save tens of billions of dollars every year.
Getting information technology into the hands of providers is critical, and right here in Minnesota you can find many pioneers bringing health care into the 21st century. Two of the state's -- and the world's -- best examples of modernized systems are the Mayo Clinic and Park Nicollet Health Services, thanks in no small part to their use of electronic medical records.
According to the latest edition of the Dartmouth Health Atlas, the Mayo Clinic is so effective that "if the U.S. health care system mirrored the practice patterns of gold-standard health care systems such as the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Medicare could save tens of billions of dollars annually."
At Mayo, updated patient records can be accessed instantly by authorized caregivers at more than 16,000 computer terminals across three facilities. Park Nicollet is equally as advanced. It has electronically connected its six urgent-care centers and 25 community clinics.
Other pioneers in the state include UnitedHealthcare and HealthPartners, industry leaders in developing websites for their members to better manage their health. RxHub has deployed a nationwide electronic prescribing network, and Minnesota-based MinuteClinic has electronically connected its 500-plus stores.
Although nearly all of Minnesota's hospitals and two-thirds of its primary care clinics are using or implementing e-health records, there is still work to be done.
First, health-care providers must connect their information systems. It does patients no good if their information is inaccessible when needed.
In 2007, legislation was signed that mandated all hospitals and health-care providers to adopt interoperable or interconnected systems by 2015. Through the Minnesota e-Health Initiative in the Department of Health, the state is working closely with representatives from every health-care sector to meet this deadline. It also has joined with leaders from its largest health-care organizations to announce an e-health information exchange. This superhighway will be one of the largest such exchanges in the nation, serving more than 3 million Minnesotans and connecting doctors, hospitals and clinics across the state.
Second, other large segments of providers in Minnesota, such as home health agencies, long-term-care facilities and community physicians must increase their use of technology. Of the 16,000 community physicians who deliver the majority of the care in the state, less than a quarter use e-health records.
Last month, Minnesota was designated as a Chartered Value Exchange by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As part of this designation, Minnesota's health-care community should take advantage of a program introduced by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt that will pay 1,200 small- to medium-sized primary care physician practices to use e-health records.
Given the life-and-death implications, one would think health care would be more technologically advanced. Minnesota provides shining examples of what a modernized system can be, and through hard work, it can be even better. The citizens of Minnesota deserve nothing less.
Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation. Tim Pawlenty is governor of Minnesota.
© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Flyfishing for Shad

I spent the weekend fly-fishing on the Potomac River right out from Georgetown University. I convinced Rob Wood to come down Friday night and spend the day fishing with Bobby Harrington and me. So he packed his family up and came down. We got up early Saturday morning and headed over to Fletchers Boat House to get our row boats and licenses. We were lucky and got the last 2 boats Fletchers had.

Fishing in the morning was a little slow, and it took us a while to figure out the proper technique. Once we did, the shad started coming in. Rob and I hit a few doubles in the morning which kept it exciting.

Mike and Rob bringing in doubles!

The beautiful shad of the potomac

Unfortunately, Rob had to take off a little after lunch; but Bobby and I stayed out, and ended up glad we did. Bobby and I hit 7 doubles in the afternoon, which means we both had fish on at the same time. The fishing was incredible. Shad are a very tough fish and always put up a good fight. Their underbelly is often so sharp and pointed it feels like it could cut you. There are 2 types of Shad: Hickory and American. The Americans are the gold prize of shad. We caught mostly Hickory, but got lucky and hit a few Americans as well. I think we all caught one or two Americans, but Bobby caught the fish of the day towards the end of the day. This Shad was like an NFL football; it was huge.

Bobby and his big American Shad

Okay, maybe it wasn’t the biggest fish of the weekend, I guess this fish was…

Huge Striper from the Potomac

This is a fish of a lifetime, so I will spare all of you details on how it was caught....It was gigantic and very heavy. Some day when i have more time I will tell the story! Some day....

All in all, it was a great weekend and I had a great time spending time with Bobby and Rob. We'll get them again next weekend!

Update on Work...

I am trying to get back into the habit of blogging. It has been some time since I posted last, and a lot has happened. At the beginning of the year I began a new and exciting job that I am thoroughly enjoying. I am the Director of a National Electronic Health Records (EHR) Demonstration Project that is focused on improving the quality of patient care through the efficient use of EHRs.

We (Medicare) are offering to pay primary care physicians an incentive payment for using EHRs efficiently to improve the quality of care. The way the medical system is organized creates an unfair mismatch for physicians. In most cases they bear the sole responsibility of purchasing these expensive systems, and once they do the payers of health care, like Medicare, receive most of the financial benefit. It isn’t until the EHR is well integrated into the physicians practice that they start saving money. Through this demonstration project, Medicare is taking the lead to try and reverse this mismatch by giving money back to physicians for effectively using EHRs to help us accomplish the ultimate objective which is to improve the quality of care Medicare beneficiaries receive. In the middle of June we will be announcing 12 communities across the country that will participate in the demonstration project with us. To date, we have visited about 37 communities and invited them to apply to be part of the project. The project has been well received, and we are hopeful that we will get a good amount of applications.

I am writing this from an Amtrack train, headed up to Newark to participate in the last event for the promotion of my project. The applications are due May 13. I am challenged by the work, but am enjoying it and learning a lot; it has been a great project for me to work on! If you want to learn more, which I'm sure all of you do, here are the links to more information on the project:

EHR Demonstration Fact Sheet
EHR Demonstration Web Site

Here is an article from the road:
http://www.khi.org/s/index.cfm?aid=1157

I love my Wii!

So I turned the big 30 on March 13th! For my birthday this year I got a gift that to this point in my life, I have never had. To this point in my long career I have never owned a video game console. Growing up I was always jealous of my friends that could spend countless hours in mindless fun. Once I got a little older I realized the wisdom of my parents in limiting my exposure to these time dumps. However, my perfect record has been destroyed.

I made it 30 years, but for my 30th birthday my family decided to get me a Nintendo Wii. (of course I didn’t ask for it!!). In addition to getting a Wii, I also got a video game pass from Blockbuster that allows me to rent as many games in a month that I can. I figure I can determine what games I really like before buying them. So far I have loved it. I love the fact that I can download old school video games like Super Mario Brothers 3, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, and Excite Bike; great games from way back in the day. I have also really enjoyed the interactive (athletic…some would say) aspect of the Wii. I love playing tennis and Tiger Woods golf, and it amazes me how the machine is able to receive my movements and translate them into video game movements. I will confess after taking batting practice the other night, I woke up sore; I couldn’t believe it. I have also broken a sweat boxing with Qualter. The machine is quite entertaining. All the thanks to my loving family that got this for me…Now all of you need to come visit so you can play with me.

Wow! We have Great Leaders in this Country

Tribute to an Incredible Man...Gordon B. Hinckley

This week the world lost something great. Our beloved Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away and was reunited with his loving wife. President Hinckley was truly a giant! His loving, sweet, and gentle personality changed the lives of many, including my own. I know he was a Prophet of God. His insightful words inspired and will continue to inspire me to be a better man. I love the quote I heard him say when he came to Georgia while on my mission "The Gospel is to make bad men good, and good men better." He is a man who lived according to the principles he taught, and showed all of us the joy we can experience in doing the same. His wit and sense of humor was appreciated by all. During the same visit in Georgia, the first words that came out of his mouth were "Georgia, the land of the red-soil and the red-necks!" He was a wonderful man, and I will always be grateful for what he has done for me in my life. I feel somewhat selfish experiencing sorrow at his loss, because I know he is in a better place with his loving wife.

Thank you President Hinckley for the example of your life.

Here are a few video tributes I enjoyed watching:

Here is a tribute by Glen Beck, a loud spoken report for CNN:




I love hearing him bear his testimony...

Expand SCHIP?

Flight of the Conchords

Here are a few more classic Flight of the Conchords videos. The second one is long, but well worth it. Enjoy....

SCHIP - What They Aren't Telling You

Written by Charles SignorilePublished October 04, 2007

As expected, President Bush vetoed the children's health insurance bill today. Also as expected, this has brought an onslaught of attacks from the left, coupled with blatant lies to back them up. Senator Harry Reid, who is quickly moving my top ten list of useless politicians, called it a "heartless veto".
"By vetoing a bipartisan bill to renew the successful Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush is denying health care to millions of low-income kids in America." said Reid.
Before pulling out your box of tissues and weeping for the "millions of low income kids" this "heartless veto" has denied from insurance, I think it is important to look into what Democrats, and the media are not telling you about this bill.
For starters it is important to note that President Bush did not veto the SCHIP program, what he vetoed was the enormous expansion of it. President Bush had asked for a small expansion of this program from Congress, requesting an additional $5 billion over the next 5 years. The House's first draft of this bill authorized an additional $50 billion and covered "children" as old as 25 from families which made as much as $82,000 per year. Those numbers have since been toned down, however the final bill which was presented to President Bush requested an increase of $35 billion and would cover "children" as old as 21.
While looking at those figures also realize that, as the Wall Street Journal reported recently, this bill has what is known as a "funding cliff". The "yearly SCHIP layout increases to $13.9 billion in 2011, then abruptly cuts spending by 65% below current funding levels. This helps 'score' the bill as costing only $35 billion over the five-year budget window, but it also means that come 2012 Congress will either have to pass new spending or kick kids off the rolls". Meaning this 5 year expansion is only funded for 4 years under the current legislation!
With regards to the "funding" of this expansion, it is comical how the Democrats wish to do so. Funding is expected to come from a 61 cent increase in tax on cigarettes, with Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), echoing the reason many other Dems have stated "The tobacco tax is a great way to pay for it, because if you tax people who are smoking and they smoke less, then we have less health problems." Yes Mr. Pallone, that is true, if you increase taxes on cigarettes less people will smoke, but then who will be paying the tax??! "In just five years, Congress will need over 9 million new smokers," estimated The Heritage Foundation's Michelle Bucci and William Beach.
President Bush has stated he is worried the expansion of the SCHIP program to children who come from families with higher income levels would inevitably lead to some children who are already covered by private insurance to be moved into the taxpayer funded program. He is also worried that the Democrats expansion of this bill is simply a small step towards a national health care system. I agree with him on both counts.
Democrats claim it is preposterous that this bill is in any way a first step towards national health care, it is simply to help the children. Apparently those same people have not yet read the memo Hillary Clinton received in 1993 from her staff which stated federal coverage of children should be used as a precursor to universal coverage.
One other very important item which most have yet to read about in the newspaper, or hear about on ABC news. Under the new expansion of SCHIP, States will not be mandated to verify the legal status of the applicant. This bill provides billions of billions of dollars to the States to offer it poorer citizens insurance, but does not require the States to verify that only citizens will receive this money. The words taxpayer funded insurance for illegal aliens were never mentioned in the NY Times as far as I could see.
The fact is, Democrats are claiming Bush hates children while at the same time they are playing politics with children's health care, using it to benefit themselves instead of the children. SCHIP has expired as of September 30, meaning States will not receive any monies from the Federal Government for this program until a new bill is passed. The Democrats have known for months this large expansion of the program would be vetoed by President Bush, but decided to wait until the plan expired before presenting it to him for his veto. This allowed them to paint the President as being evil, while they proclaim they are the party that cares about children.
"If he vetoes the bill, it's a political victory for us." said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL). House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer agreed saying "With a bill on its way to the president's desk by the end of next week, Democrats will be safe in blaming the White House for allowing the program to expire"
These words do not sound like a group of people whose only interest is to help "poor" children. There is an obvious political agenda surrounding the SCHIP expansion, and it is a game politicians on both sides have been playing for years. Until we as a Country stop electing career politicians to represent us, this game will continue and the only losers will be us.
Like the old joke goes, "How do you know when a politician is lying?", "His lips are moving."

Hilarious Video...

I have found a new comedy act that I love. These guys are on a show on HBO called Flight of the Conchords. The TV show is about these two guys from New Zealand who move to New York to make it big with their music. This is a clip from a real concert, and one of their songs. To say the least, it is hilarious! Enjoy...

Travel to Tanzania, Africa

I recently returned from a trip to Tanzania, Africa. Tanzania is a beautiful country full of incredible people. It was a bit of a cultural shock going there and seeing the differences between the USA and Tanzania. I was amazed by the difficulties the people experience in their daily living. Despite the difficulties, the people remain optimistic and don’t seem easily discouraged. It made me appreciate some of the small luxuries, like running water, good roads, and shoes.

When I arrived in Africa Friday, August 17, I was completely alone. Usually we travel with security agents, but they weren't coming until the following evening. I quickly realized how much I enjoy having people to talk with. I had no phone, and no internet access, and I was picked up at the airport by a Tanzanian driver who spoke little English and was taken to my hotel. As Ron Burgendy says in the movie Anchorman "It is hard to be lonely in a big city." I felt that way. I checked in and figured out how to contact Cingular and they were able to activate my service. Having easy and quick access to friends and family is a great blessing that I take for granted. It is nice to be able to have a phone, pick up and call anytime we want. When it is gone, it feels awful! (especially when you're in a foreign country and have no clue up from down.)

Saturday morning, I got to work on lining up a safari for Sunday. A local driver, Steven, came to our lobby and I negotiated with him from $600 down to $300 for a day long safari in Mukumi National Park. The deal was he would drive me there (3 hours), pay for my entrance into the park, and for the guide fee, and drive me back to the hotel. I felt pretty good about the package I got and have been told by multiple sources that I got a screaming deal.

After lining up my safari, I decided to head to a local market where I could purchase wood carvings and other gifts for people. Driving in Tanzania is crazy! Not only is the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car, they drive on the opposite side of the road. I kept thinking we were going to hit oncoming cars until I realized they were coming at us from the other lane. Several times when getting in the car, I would walk up to the drivers side, thinking it to be the passangers side, and open the door. My driver finally started laughing at me and saying "not American my friend!" We got a good laugh out of it.

On the way to the market guess what I saw? You got it, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

At the end of a long shopping spree in Dar es Salaam. The gentleman in the white shirt helped me around the market and took good care of me.

The shops were incredible and each was loaded with similar goods. In the front of the shops were the sales people, and as you walked to the back they had people sitting on floors carving the items that were for sale.

My first night, I had dinner by myself at the Seacliff Hotel. It is a beautiful hotel that sits on the Indian Ocean. I even treated myself to some ice cream.

Sunday morning I headed to Mukumi National Park for my safari. The park is about 3 hours north of Dar es Salaam, depending on how fast you drive. I was amazed by the amount of people I saw on the side of the road walking from one village to the next that were anywhere from 1 mile to 5 miles apart. Many of the women walked with buckets of fruit or grains balancing on their heads. I saw one woman that particularly impressed me. When I saw her I hadn't seen a village for over a mile. The woman was walking along the road balancing a large bucket of produce on her head. If that wasn't enough, she was barefoot, and was carrying an infant in one arm, and with the other she was holding the hand of an older child. Life in Tanzania is not easy, and the people endure very difficult trials day after day. These women are strong and determined, and they persist despite the difficulty. The streets are also filled with bikers, not Cannondale Caad 8 bikes, these are bikes that look like they are 20-30 years old with rusty frames. The bikes were loaded with goods: wood, seeds, baskets, people, and anything else that could fit on a bike. When there was a hill, the bikers would get off and push the bike to the top of the hill and resume riding. Garbage is a problem in Tanzania. Each village was covered with trash, littering occurred everywhere I looked. The drive was beautiful. We drove up past Morogoro, which lies at the base of Morogoro Mountain. It had rained the night before and the clouds that sat on the mountain created a beautiful scenery. I would describe most of the drive as somewhat tropical. Banana, coconut, and mango trees were everywhere, and the villagers lined the streets selling their produce.

The speed limit on the road was 50 km/hour, but Steven drove like his passenger and averaged 140 km/hour! It was exciting just watching all the cars we would pass as if they were stopped. Steven and I were stopped for speeding 4 times on the way up and back. The first time, I was so nervous! I thought I would end up in prison. Steven jumped out of the car, started small talk with the officer and slipped him 2000 schillings ($1.50) and we were off. Each time we were stopped Steven would slip the officer money and that would be the end of it. I wish we could do that in the USA!

Along the drive to Mikumi National Park, there were items for sale all along the road. These baskets and rugs/mats were everywhere. One item I regret not purchasing...a hand woven basket

Mikumi National Park entrance.... the "Danger...Wild Animals" caught my attention!

This is the location where you sign into the park and begin the safari. It was raining when we arrived, so I spent some time making friends with the guards and staff. My German gummy bears went a long way.

The first animal we saw were hippos. There were about 15 of them in this pool. The National Park actually makes a man made reservoir and then the hippos come to the water. More people die from Hippo attacks annually in Africa than from any other animal.

I felt very lucky about this sighting...that is the King of the Jungle, 2 male lions! We were coming along the road and saw a heard of wildebeests (below) running. I thought they were running from our vehicle, but we quickly realized there was something more scary they were a afraid of.

Pack of wildebeests

We saw a bunch of beautiful giraffes, they were easy to spot for obvious reasons.

We drove through lots of this type of brush. This is prime lion living as they are able to walk around undetected. I kept thinking one was going to jump out and come right in my window. It was a little freaky.

The Bush

L to R: Steven (my driver), Eagle, Tour Guide, and my Chinese friend. I don't remember my Chinese friends name, but when we pulled up to the park he was there on his motorcycle. He was hoping to take his bike into the park. You can put 2 and 2 together and figure out that it isn't a very wise idea. So he asked if he could join us in our car and I agreed. (for $10) Which is a really good deal!

Entrance of Mikumi National Park

Baboon

I was fascinated by the drive back to Dar. It was about a 3 hour drive passing through village after village. Each village had some form of a market that lined the streets selling all types of goods from produce to live chickens to clothing and shoes. I was shocked by the amount of people awaiting buyers. We stopped several times because Steven had to buy potatoes for his wife. When we got out of the car and were instantly mobbed.

The markets had their produce on fancy display. This is a selection of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and apples.

I think this guy had just finished stacking his produce! It deserves a thumbs up!

Here is Steven negotiating with the sellers. You can see the guy carrying the live chickens. They were flapping all around and squawking. Holding them looked really difficult.

Brick is essential for the structures in the villages. Most of the villages had a brickyard where they would burn the mud into brick for all their buildings. Here is a picture of some of the brick workers unloading the brick.

Monday we began our walk throughs. The first place we visited was Mwananyamala Hospital in Dar. This was a very eye opening experience. As we pulled through the gate to the hospital, we were stopped and told we could not proceed any further because the road was being paved. The hospital was paving their dirt road for the Secretary's visit. As we entered the hospital it reminded me more of a university, or outdoor shopping area than a hospital. People were everywhere, and the buildings were single leveled and open. As we got out of our vehicle, I heard a woman near me weeping. I looked over and saw this woman sitting on the ground, with a friend on each side of her, crying "he's dead! he's dead!" Locals passed by her as if this happened all the time. I wanted so badly to comfort her in some way, but I knew there was nothing I could do. My hear sunk. I can't adequately describe the conditions at this hospital. The waiting rooms, located outdoors, were filled with dozens and dozens of people, mainly women with children, awaiting treatment. The facilities were old and looked as if they hadn't been cleaned for some time. At a hospital in the US, you see doctors and nurses walking around all over, here, I saw no doctors. The demand for care was so high but there was insufficient staff to treat the patients.

The first thing we noticed is that they were putting in a brick road (previously dirt) for the Secretary's arrival. They were very excited that Secretary Leavitt was coming. Our Department is funding a new clinic that they are opening in the hospital.

Some of the completed road

This is the record keeping room for the entire hospital

Here I am with the hospital staff in the new clinic. It was neat to hear them express profound gratitude for the aide our country is giving them. The new clinic isn't huge, but it is clean, well built, and provides a great sense of optimism. The hospital staff is very proud of the new building.

The next site we went to was with Pathfinder International. This is a business that provides home based care to people living with HIV/ AIDS. This walk through took us to some of the poorest regions in Dar. As you can see from the picture above what some of the neighborhoods were like.

At our first visit, I fell in love with this beautiful little girl. She was darling and would mimic everything I did. At first she was very shy, but by the end of our visit, she was jumping up and down and having all sorts of fun with us.

I love this picture of this young African boy

Mohammed is a young boy who is living AIDS free; his mother who is receiving home based care for her AIDS. Mohammed is a strong and vibrant young man, determined to stay AIDS free.

We also visited an older couple who several years ago found out they both had been living with AIDS for some time. Mwaepipiana, the husband, was a very charismatic and positive man. he had a smile that could turn your hear inside out. He is in the blue striped shirt above. Mwaepipiana, who goes by Mwinyi, which I am told means African Master, (He carries the name well) told us their story of when they found out they had AIDS. This strong man said to us, "when we found out we just cried and cried and cried. We didn't know what to do." He became very somber and I then asked him how he felt now that he is receiving treatment? His face lit up and he said "Very good sir, very good!" This seemed to be a theme among the people of Africa, despite the difficulties of life they remained very optimistic and positive.

I found this welcome package funny. You get a nice bowl of fruit and right next to it a can of Raid! Fortunately, I didn't have to use it.

I had my first experience sleeping with mosquito nets at the Serena Hotel.

View from the balcony of my hotel room...not bad.

Zanzibar is famous for their many unique sail boats. They were all over and beautiful to look at.

Another beautiful sailboat on the Indian Ocean in Zanzibar

Getting comfy in the lobby of the Serena Hotel

Big Joe and I. Joe had to be one of my favorite guys from the trip. Big Joe is one of the managers of the Serena Hotel, and is one of the most charismatic and energetic people I have ever met. Every time he would see me he would hollar "Brother man!" and follow it up with a bunch of other expressions ending in "man". Big Joe took good care of us while we were at the Serena. He even showed me his picture with Bill Clinton from when Clinton visited Zanzibar several years ago.

The first walk through we had in Zanzibar was for the President's Malaria Initiative, or PMI. President Bush has created this program to help in the battle against malaria . We went to a warehouse where all of the malaria sprayers go before heading out for the day. They come to the warehouse to get dressed in these hot outfits that protect them from the elements. There is also a helmet that goes with the outfit. The workers then go into local communities, empty the homes, and spray insecticides into the homes to protect the occupants from malaria.

Malaria sprayers getting ready for a hard days work

Tanzania has had enormous success in their fight against malaria. Another form of treatment we help fund is mosquito nets, like the one below. Following our visit to the warehouse, we were able to go into a local village to see where the spraying is occurring.

This is a picture of Secretary Leavitt, Dr. Julie Gerberding, and Ambassador Retzer of Tanzania getting ready to participate in the malaria spraying.

Helping Secretary Leavitt (far left), Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, and the Tanzanian Minister of Health get ready to witness the spraying.

Bill Steiger and I after the spraying event in Zanzibar

Pausing to play with some of the local children from the PMI spraying event

Beautiful beaches of Zanzibar

Stonetown is a famous location on the island of Zanzibar. It is a beautiful little town with narrow roads and ancient buildings. I got in some more shopping while in Stonetown.

L to R: Beverly Cummings, Control Officer for our visit, me, Rebecca Miller, CDC employee who came to Tanzania to help with our trip. Both Beverly and Rebecca were great to work with. Beverly has been in Tanzania for a couple years and works for our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention office.

This is how I got to the PMI Warehouse from the Zanzibar airport. A lot of the locals travel around like this. It was about a 10 minute ride and was very enjoyable.

Allyson Bell and I at the Serena Hotel

Dr. Jiddawwi and I at the Zanziar Blood Center. Dr. Jiddawwi was the Minister of Health in Zanzibar and was a wonderful man!

After the Secretary's Departure, I went back to Dar es Salaam and got to go to one of the beaches to swim in the Indian Ocean.

Picture of the back of our hotel, the Movenpick, in Dar es Salaam.

A view from my beach chair
At the beach (we were actually at a beach located within a beautiful hotel) they had these performers that were incredible! Here is one of them doing a flip through two bike rims!

Body surfing in the Indian Ocean!

After my swim in the ocean!

Here I am with Jerry, he was our designated driver from the Embassy. He was a great guy and took good care of us.