DGE Kim Gramling, Kathy, and I met at GSP Airport on the evening of August 19th to begin a new adventure in my DG travels! Some of you are probably wondering why it has taken so long to begin posting on the blog, but you will soon understand! We boarded our United Express flight to the Washington DC Dulles Airport on time, the plane departed the gate on time, and we then sat on the GSP tarmac for nearly two hours due supposedly to bad weather in Washington, DC. (The Dulles Airport tarmac was dry and weather beautiful when we finally arrived!) I explained to the flight attendant that we would miss our flight to Dubai that evening with the delay, but this did not seem to phase anyone at United. I tracked both flights on my iPhone as we waited, discovered that the Dubai flight was delayed due to mechanical problems, and was still on the ground when we landed in Washington. Kathy, Kim, and I ran through the airport to the gate to try to board the flight, but they closed the door 5 minutes before we arrived. The gate agent was also not phased by our situation and sent us to customer service where we waited over an hour to speak with someone. We were booked on a flight leaving the next day at 10:18 PM, and the airline elected to send us on a $58 cab ride to downtown Washington to their preferred hotel. Unfortunately, they did not provide a proper voucher for the hotel and offered one meal for the 24 hour period before our flight to Dubai departed. We finally settled into the hotel room about 2:30 AM, slept a few hours, and decided to tour DC the next day. Needless to say, I was a bit cranky and probably didn't impress DGE Kim! The following day, we enjoyed the new 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon, the Native American Smithsonian Museum, and of course the Air and Space Museum. We took a few photos on the Mall of the Capital and Lincoln Memorial. The Hilton Hotel in Crystal City was very nice to us and provided transportation to Reagan Airport where we caught a Super Shuttle to Dulles and proceeded to board our flight to Dubai. They even had our luggage on the flight!
The 14 hour flight to Dubai was uneventful, and we had an opportunity to enjoy a good meal, catch up on e-mail, and even enjoy some great Baskin Robbins ice cream in the beautiful Dubai terminal before another nightmare began. As a result of missing the flight to Dubai, we also no showed our flight on Safi Airways to Kabul. This resulted in us waiting until 2 AM to determine if they had any seats on this nearly fully booked flight. We then learned that we had to pay a $40 no show fee, a $40 change in reservation fee, and a $50 service fee per person to get new tickets. We essentially paid for a new ticket to Kabul thanks to United Airlines. Please accept my apologies for this long story, but it makes me feel better if I can at least warn one person about the consequences of flying with United Airlines.
On August 22nd we landed in Kabul on time at 6:40 AM (Kabul time, + 8.5 hours from EDT) and were met by our guest house hosts. Knowing that the course I was coming to teach began at 7 AM, I quickly moved into our room, cleaned up a bit, and headed to Afshar Hospital located about 30 minutes away from the guest house. They had started about 30 minutes late, but were pleased to have me to help with the advanced obstetrics course. I did a lecture, helped teach at two skill stations, and had a great time seeing some of my old residents now teaching in the residency program. Fatigue just about overcame me since I really had not slept well since our first night in Washington DC. Kathy and I slept well that afternoon and evening!
The next three days (August 23-25) were an absolute joy as we continued to teach the OB course and interact with our 24 students (family medicine and OB physicians as well as several midwives). I was impressed by their excitement about learning despite the fact that this is Ramazan when they fast (no food or fluids) during the day. Kathy and Kim were able to participate in a mobile medical clinic to Dashti Bachi, an very impoverished area in Kabul. They administered some polio vaccine and were able to interact with the midwives and huge crowd of mothers with their babies. I was pleased that DGE Kim and Kathy were able to see typical Afghans in an area similar to many rural areas of the country. Kim and Kathy were also a huge help on the last day of the course when we administered the practical and written tests. Kim proctored the written exam while Kathy scored the practical exam. I suspect both of them learned some obstetrics in the process! I ended the day with instructing the residents on how to use some new iPod Touches brought for them to use. They were like children at Christmas with these new toys used by many physicians in the US and worldwide now! We enjoyed some great dinners in a heavily guarded and fortified restaurant in downtown Kabul on two nights with our Afghan and US hosts.
On Friday, August 26th, Ramesh Ferris arrived from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. My friend, Dost Mohammad, Assistant Governor for the three Afghanistan Rotary Clubs in Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad, and I went to the Kabul Airport to pick up Ramesh. His flight was delayed about two hours, but we met several American contractors waiting for people on the same flight who may be able to help the US physicians working with the residency program. Kathy and Kim were able to attend a local fellowship while we were at the airport. Kathy met many old friends, and Kim saw a new aspect of life in Afghanistan. I had hoped that we could visit some old friends at Camp Eggers or ISAF, but we learned that a security alert had been declared and these were unsafe areas to visit.
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