First Post: About this blog

Hey everyone!
This blog will serve as an online journal of my time preparing for, during, and after my internship in Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî), Iraq, and Istanbul, Turkey. I will be working for the Preemptive Love Coalition to help Kurdish and Iraqi children with congenital heart disease (CHD) recieve life-saving heart surgery which must, at this time, be performed in Istanbul. PLC also works to facilitate dialogue and reconciliation between what have been traditionally "at-odds" groups. You can read all about PLC's goals, values, and methods on their website.
In conjunction with the goals of and concurrent with my internship at PLC, I will be conducting anthropological research on how the local community percieves CHD, and what the local perspective is about the lack of access to medical resources for treating CHD. My research is under the guidance of the fantastic Dr. Cassandra White of Georgia State University.

This journal will primarily be a space for me to share personal experiences, thoughts, sights, and stories from my time as an intern with PLC. I will also be posting links to the blogs, journals, or websites of other interns, PLC, and even some of the kids we work with! I may post limited updates on the progress of my research as well.

I hope that you will continue to check back often and that you will find this journal to be both educational and an enjoyable read!