Study Abroad in Geneva
from Dr. Ruby Dunlap, Professor of Nursing

We started off Monday afternoon at the UNHCR with a great talk by Carol Laleve with years of experience in Syria. She was not very positive about any short term improvement in that situation, unfortunately. Tuesday was a packed day: first at the International Federation of the Red Cross and some excellent speakers followed by an afternoon at the WHO and some excellent speakers there. The global perspective on the world’s health issues is hard to take in, it is so vast.

On Wednesday we visited a very sober place, the Red Cross Museum, with lots of interactive exhibits involving natural and manmade disasters (e.g. war and genocide). Thursday we had our first community health exam and poor Internet: that was a challenge to say the least. Friday, the wind was blowing hard in Geneva but we had scheduled a cable car ride up to the top of Mount Saleve, not quite 4,000 feet. The cable car went up halfway, came back down and then went back up, all the way this time. Up on top, the wind howled but we enjoyed hiking about for awhile. Unfortunately, the winds were too strong for the cable cars to run so they took us down the mountain by van. The last group was deposited halfway down and had to hike the remaining hour and a half of walking descent. Those who rode the whole way were “treated to a twisty, hair-pin curved little mountain road so we are not sure who got the better deal here. Today, we visited Annecy, a historic French town with lots of shops in its old section. Tomorrow we will have completed two weeks in Geneva with one week more remaining.