One of my cardinal rules for photography in West Africa is to never promise to give my subjects a copy of their photo. It is impossible to guarantee you will be able to get a print made and sent back to Africa from the US, not to mention the difficulty of finding the subject in a village without street addresses or even PO boxes. Especially since my trips are always missions-related, it would be a bad witness to make such a promise and not deliver.

A bonus of following that rule is that if you do manage to get the print to them it makes for a great surprise. I found out recently that sending photos back is not only a treat for my photographic subjects but for me.

Following are some images Mark Coppola, a volunteer, took of the church members in the extremely remote village of Porungon. I had taken photos of their church service back on December 23, 2007 and had sent prints back to Tommy Harrison to distribute. It made my day to see the people crowded together looking over the photographs. It also excites me to think that these may be the only photos some of these people have of their friends and loved ones.

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While many Americans are healthier than ever before, minorities and the poor are more likely to get cancer and die from the disease.  Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida focused on the crisis of health disparities during National Minority Cancer Awareness Week (NMCAW), April 20-26.

Heidi has been doing a rotation at Moffitt this month and through her contacts there I was invited to display my It Pains O’ Why portrait series at the final event of NMCAW at Moffitt. Though the specific focus of the event was on the health issues of American minorities Moffitt realizes the need for health care and education reaches beyond our nation and around the globe.

I was very honored to display my photos in such a prestigious health center and enjoyed sharing the work that BMC has been doing in Ghana. You can support BMC’s work by purchasing a print of one of my photographs and the profits from the sale go entirely to the George Faile Foundation.

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As a medical student at USF, I received school credit for my work in Nalerigu, last Fall under the school’s International Health Elective program. I’m now in my last week of medical school and had to turn in a slideshow to my professor that gave an overview of my experiences at the hospital.

While in Ghana we tried to avoid too much “geek speak” (as William calls it) and we also avoided posting some of the more graphic medical images (”What?” you’re thinking, “More graphic than the finger amputation?!”).

For those interested in the more technical explanations of some of the cases and for those with more of a stomach for graphic images, we’ve posted the slideshow online.

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During our trip to West Africa I received a lot of positive feedback about my photography from our blog readers. I really appreciate the encouragement and compliments. I’ve set up a online gallery/store where I’m selling prints of some of my favorite images from the trip. All the profits from the sales will be going to the George Faile Foundation which exclusively supports BMC, the hospital where Heidi was working.

More details about the prints are available on the gallery homepage. I hope that this provides folks with an opportunity to get some new art for their home or office and support a good cause at the same time.

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Today I spoke to the women of our church Seminole First Baptist. They invited me to share about women in West Africa as well as my experiences at the hospital.

I talked about the role of women in West Africa, how hard they work, and their own place in bringing their people to understand the truth about Jesus.  As another student volunteer so observantly noted - “the man is the head of the household, but the woman is the pillar.”

I also spoke about the role of women in missions. Women are able to more effectively minister to the needs of other women. Whether through teaching, Bible storying, working in a hospital, evangelism, prison ministry, etc.,  women play a very important role in ministry. Read the rest of this entry »

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The West Africa region has released a “mini-mag” through the IMB website and some of my photographs from our trip were used in the magazine. The magazine also has some “bonus” features found online at the gowestafrica.org website.

You can order a free copy from the IMB’s online store. All you pay is shipping (60-ish cents) so why not order one and then make a donation to international missions while you have your wallet out?

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While in Nalerigu, I kept a logbook of all the procedures, surgeries and patients that I saw. I will admit that I actually saw more things than I recorded. I usually just recorded the things that either I performed personally or had an active role.

I really did gain a wealth of experiential knowledge while at the BMC. It was great to have mentors in Dr. Faile and Dr. Hewitt, as well as many of the visiting physicians. Each shared from their own expertise and was not afraid to try new things.

I actually would have seen more things, but because William was gone half the time, I had to be at home at night to take care of Trey. Don’t take that the wrong way, I was very happy that William had the great opportunities to travel. I am just saying that for future student volunteers, the opportunities for procedures is there!

Here is the list: Read the rest of this entry »

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Traveling by road in West Africa is always a treat. You see things that make you look twice, thrice, and sometimes even a fourth time. Things like chicken mopeds, a bus with so much cargo on top it has doubled its height, or just a slogan that cracks you up. I’ve compiled a brief list of just some of the taglines I saw written across buses, trucks, and taxis.  Also below are a few photos I snapped while driving through Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire. Read the rest of this entry »

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