Pool house fantastic

Photos of my awesome pool house on Foz de Douro neighborhood. 

The wildlife here is furocious;

Sky this morning

Front gate from street and pool house entry

The neighborhood

The house bike downtown Porto last night 

Too much food and out too late

Porto

 I have slept 24 of the last 48 hours. My pool house is in the perfect, quiet neighborhood of Foz de Douro. 

Yesterday was stormy, so I went to the contempory art museum at Serralves. I didn't get it. Glad it was free on Sunday. I did enjoy the gardens. 

Today I took the tram to the old city center. The tiles here are beautiful. 

Just the train station;

View from Se'

Find the tourist with the biggest camara. Ask them to take your picture. 

Now getting hammered tasting Port. 

Frankfurt

Waiting to catch flight to Geneva then Porto. Left Jerusalem at 0200 after 1.5 hour sleep. Great last night in the old city

Best time to visit old Jerusalem

Is when there has been 1 week of conflict. We almost had the city to our selves. 

Israeli guards show of force on Via Delarosa. 

Cutch of the holy sepulcher. 

It's 1130pm. I have to catch a cab at 200am. 13 hours from then, I will be in Porto, Portugal 

Final hospital visit

My favorite bakery in Ramallah. 

One of 2 traffic circles downtown

Street scenes 

Yuki and I say good by to OR staff

Wishes

I wish I could say it's been a great week and all our patients are great and that everything was great. 

 Despite a very good surgery, our last and most complicated case today had a bad outcome. We will check in the AM to see if things have changed and I think we are all praying or whatever, that they do. 

 We have been walking to and from the hospital instead of the ridiculous short cab ride our hosts want us to take. 

 Stairs on morning walk 

There was a lot of people ouside the hospital and several mini vans. We were told a Palestinian man was shot by Israeli soldiers while working in his field. It was a large peaceful staging for a procession  

Eventually, Yuki and I went to the Turkish bath. Our driver was in the film 5 Broken Camaras. An Oscar nominated Palestinian documentary I saw a few years back. 

We stopped for a sunset photo. 

Random pics

Tension

"It feels tense here". The Israelis and Hamas in Gaza are tossing bombs. The settlers and Palestinians are using knives on each other. In the West Bank the troubled is mostly near checkpoints several at one checkpoint into Jerusalem which is about 5 miles away. 

  What I notice is that Ramallah was quieter than usual on Friday. The 20+ ambulances that passed while we ate dinner. Our doctors are consulting on adults with GSW from the recent conflict. A 4 person PCRF medical team is now working with us instead of going to Gaza. 

  Meanwhile, we did 3 surgeries today. All kids are well. 

5 mo old Saba'a got a VP shunt for hydrocephalus   

Smog over Ramallah 

Ramallah clinic

It's always good to have clinic finished. The noise and confusion are tiring. 

We have cases scheduled to Wednesday  and predict many more screenings in the next few days to fill the schedule to Friday. 

Sisters rock the ankle lace at clinic

As is his style, Samer finds a case we have to do today. Reem is 1 year old with chronic, frontal subdural blood clot from a fall. 

Yoki our anesthesiologist, does a great job inducing him and Samer and Dr. Othman put in 2 drains, irrigate the old blood out. Now his fontenelle is sunken and the brain has room. 

Anne, Ian, Othman, Yoki, Samer, T, Samah, and Randa

Ramallah and the day of Anger

This note from my friend prior to leaving:

Hi Teresa,

As u might be watching in the news, it is very unstable currently. the roads between cities and villages are infested by settlers. Inside the cities is quite and almost normal, but it is at checkpoints and if u travel. National societies for resisting occupation are calling for Friday to be a "national anger day", i am not sure what will this mean. I will check on road condition before i leave home, and if it is dangerous, then i will not come on Friday. I will try to visit u during the week in the evening if that works with u.

Take care

Ansam

We made it to the hotel with out any problems. Our checkpoint was quiet. We. Walked around Ramallah, to Yassar Arafat' tomb. Then, 20 ambulances drive by as we safely eat dinner.