Without question, Jeremy and Karen’s wedding was the most flawlessly smooth of any I’ve attended, and that included not one, but two playings of Eddie Murphy’s “Queen to Be” at the reception. How does everything just fall into place, even in the absence of a “bridezilla”?
Jeremy and Karen were kind enough to humor me by waking at way earlier than anyone ought wake on a Saturday morning. I assured them that the light a Hocking Hills would be best shortly after sunrise, and if we were lucky, we would get some “God rays” streaking through the trees. So you haven’t heard of “God Rays” either? You know, the kind of angular shafts of light that stream down from the heavens that seem to chant AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAllelujiah!
Portraits of EIS Officer Tyler Sharp, an Epidemic intelligence Service officer assigned to the CDC Dengue Branch in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I returned to Haiti a year after the earthquake. A cholera epidemic was still spreading throughout the country, and scores of displaced persons were still residing in camps.
Portraits of EIS officers Prabhu Gounder (assigned to the New York City Department of Health and Mathieu Troudjman (assigned to the Oregon health Department).
Held at HHS headquarters, the fourth National Walk at Lunch Day – co-sponsored by Federal Occupational Health and the BlueCross/BlueShield Association – demonstrated how easy it is to incorporate physical activity into the work day. National Walk@Lunch Day was sponsored nationwide in all 50 states and Puerto Rico in order to promote the benefits of walking.
Capitol Improv honored National Pillow Fight Day by organizing pillow fight at the Washington Momument.
The Department of Health and Human Services and Explorer post 521 partnered with the National Park Service to provide medical support at the 2010 National Cherry Blossom Festival.
The Love A Child orphanage is a Christian humanitarian organization situated in Fond Parisien, near the Dominican border. This orphanage volunteered to transform part of their grounds into a relief station resembling a Field Medical Station (FMS). Here, a broad coalition of international government and non-government organizations worked to provide a medical care, including on-site surgical procedures, and convalescent care for patients discharged from the USNS Comfort. USPHS participation in this mission was not anticipated at the outset, but when several IRCT logistics officers learned of a need for physical and occupational therapists, LCDR Joe Christ and LT Carlos Estevez volunteered to provide patient care.
The logistics team set up, supplied, and eventually decommissioned several medical sites around Port au Prince. Photos from these missions were used by the German News Agency ZDF to highlight this aspect of the relief effort. The facilities we serviced include, Gheskio, Termainl Vareux, Pétionville, and a morgue.
As the logistics team, our challenge was to receive medical supplies from ships and planes and distribute them to health clinics around Port au Prince. This seemingly straightforward task was complicated by the extensive damage to the seaport of the Baie de Port-au-Prince and warehouse facilities. The US Coast Guard and Department of Defense components successfully restored a level of functionality to the maritime facilities by repairing docks and implementing the use of amphibious landing craft to shuttle supplies inland from cargo ships.
As the US Public Health Service logistics team, we enjoyed the relative comforts of the US embassy (known as the “Embassy Suites” by team members based out of more austere sites). We had a secure perimeter, a constant breeze to subdue malaria-carrying mosquitoes, a clean parking lot for our tent floor, showers, and air conditioning in the nearby buildings to temporarily relieve the blistering heat. However, these unexpected comforts were matched by the extraordinary physical exertion needed to organize, maintain, and deploy the incessant influx and efflux of supplies.
Our team spent significant time on the street of Port au Prince as we delivered supplies to sites throughout the city. This offered a unique experience of observing daily life after the earthquake. We were usually greeted with thankful reception, but reports of sporadic violence necessitated the use of armed escorts.
Haitians are no strangers to hard times. For centuries, these resolute people battled earthquakes, tsunamis, and viscous Caribbean storms. As recently as 2008, a serious of hurricanes and tropical storms claimed the lives of nearly 800 Haitians. These devastations, still fresh in mourning minds, were eclipsed by the February 2010 earthquake that proved to be one of the worst disasters in modern history.
One of the best things about being a Commissioned Corps officer in the DC area is the social networking. No, not Facebook. Real faces. Real people. Real interactions. There is no substitute for opportunities to build relationships beyond voices on a teleconference call. Case in point: the holiday party for the DC Metropolitan area branch of the Commissioned Officer’s Association. Yeah, it was at a bowling alley, but it really was cool. Trust me. As an unintended bonus, we got to chip away at a symbol of modern isolationism.
The project: a photo a day for the first 100 days of my daughter’s life. I tried this when my son, Ethan was born, and the process was as rewarding as it was the first time.
Okay, I know this looks like a wedding, it sounds like a wedding, it even smells like a wedding. But Catherine and Scott actually got married back in May. It turns out that love couldn’t wait through the months of wedding prep, so thy tied the knot in an informal ceremony, and had the full gala a few months later . Michele Drumm and I teamed up for this out-of towner.
When Joon, my bud from grad school, asked me to be his best man, I was hugely honored. I must admit, though, that I was hoping to be able to take some photos at his wedding. The best of both worlds converged when he asked me to shoot the Koren wedding (preceding the American one), as well as the gettin’ ready shots. Score.
Saturday, October 8, 2011 at 7:45PM
