Ethiopia Nov 29-30, 2014

Nov 29-30, 2014

The day after Thanksgiving, I left for Ethiopia for my 11^th visit.  Eight others traveled with me from Philadelphia, and we were eventually joined by others from around the US.  We have 6 ENT surgeons, 1 ENT resident, an anesthesia resident, and OR nurse, 2 audiologists, our Healing the Children President, two family members and myself.  All of us made it uneventfully along with all of our luggage. We are very grateful for this!

Sunday some of ENT team gave lectures to the local ENT physicians.  Some us of went to the local Anglican church.  We dropped off equipment and supplies at Cure Hospital.  Some team members did some sight-seeing and shopping, some bought and drank coffee.  We will have a team dinner and prepare for tomorrow.  The ENT team will have a large evaluation clinic, and Dr. Hoda and I will help with orthopaedic cases in the Cure OR.

Ethiopia

I am settled into my hotel in Addis.
Our flights were smooth and easy as was customs. There are 9 of us here so far, the rest get in over the next few hours. All of our bags made it without any adventures this time.
Time for sleep!

Ethiopia here we come!

In my seat on the flight to Frankfurt headed to Ethiopia for my 11th trip.

Stay tuned!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pre and post Philly Half Marathon

Lockheed Martin NOVA award

On October 25, 2014, Marc was a recipient of Lockheed Martin's NOVA award which was presented in the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington DC!  The NOVA award is Lockheed Martin's highest award and was given to about 63 individuals or teams from the company which has 130,000 or so employees!

Marc's award was a Technical Excellence Award.  His individual award states:
"Marc devoted more than five years to the success of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GEOS) Earth Pointing Platform. As certified product engineer, he has been responsible for the development, design and manufacturing/test oversight of the primary interface between the bus structure and the two main weather instruments on the GOES satellite.  The Composite Bench Structure is a unique, six-inch-thick honeycomb sandwich, and the Isolation Mounting System includes spring/damper pairs.  After overcoming numerous technical issues in manufacturing and test with the customer and suppliers, Marc's efforts retired significant risk and culminated in ahead-of-schedule delivery of the first flight units for the next generation GOES-R satellite in December 2013."

Congratulations Marc!!

Washington DC

Marc and I spent a wonderful fall weekend in Washington DC celebrating his birthday and the honor of his receiving Lockheed Martin's NOVA award at the Air and Space museum.  We also had the opportunity to see a new musical, "Little Dancer" staring my cousin Boyd Gaines at Edgar Degas.  It was a fabulous and amazing show.  We enjoyed seeing him after the show to catch up as well.

Ethan and me