Phi, Amy, me, Kyla, Ben, and Kate celebrating Amy and Jesse's wedding on Saturday

It was a very rough week at work, for reasons I will not go into here, but a wonderful, wonderful weekend.

Friday, Cesar Chavez day (which is a recognized California [and clinic] holiday but which most of you have probably never heard of), permitted us to go skiing! This has been such a fantastic year for snow and, just the night before, Tahoe had a couple more feet for us to play in! I missed all of February's great skiing due to being overseas, so I was excited to get the chance to get back onto the slopes. Phi, his brother, and I drove up to Tahoe to spend the day at Sierra. Although we were faced with minor inconveniences such as a spin-out on ice on our way in and a need for getting pulled out of the snowbank (no, I was not driving) as well as a lost camera (mine.... I don't know why I have such terrible luck with cameras!), it was a great day with great powder! My legs are still sore.

We finished off the day with potluck dinner and karaoke at Phi's house, which is always a fun time :)

Saturday was Amy and Jesse's wedding day and oh, what a day it was! It being a full-on Indian Sikh wedding, they had numerous events going on in the days preceding the actual wedding day events, but Saturday was also packed!

In the morning, it started at the Gurudwara (temple), with the bride and groom's families greeting one another (Milni), breakfast and tea (we ate pakora and curry at 10 am!), and then the Anand Karaj wedding ceremony. It was really neat, although the UC Davis crowd (largely non-Indians) could not really follow what was going on, and we are still puzzled about how to interpret "Indian time."

Jesse, the groom, in traditional dress, entering the temple


Here are Phi and me with our head coverings which were required on entry to the temple. Swati loaned me her salwar kurta to wear for the morning!


Ben, Kyla, me, Katie, and Brandon

Kathleen Toner, CNN

March 18, 2010

Nearly 21 years. ago. Patty Webster landed her dream job as an adventure tour guide in the Peruvian Amazon. But as she shared the area's beauty and culture with tourists, she realized there was a darker side to the rainforest paradise.

"I saw how poor they were and realized that people were dying because they didn't have medical care," Webster said.


"It was kind of scary," she recalled. "If they're depending on me for their health care ... we're all going to die."

That's when she decided to stay and do something more.
Since 1993, Webster has been bringing medical relief to some of Peru's poorest and most remote areas through her nonprofit, now known as Amazon Promise.

Webster -- described by a visiting doctor as "sort of a cross between Indiana Jones and Mother Teresa and Susan Sarandon" -- and her volunteers have provided free health care and education to more than 55,000 people.

It's hardly the life one could have predicted for this Detroit, Michigan, native, but she's never followed an "ordinary" path.
The daughter of postal workers, Webster headed to New York after high school graduation and worked as a model, a Radio City usherette and an ASPCA adoption counselor before going to Peru for a wildlife internship.

When she was offered a job as an adventure tour guide, she jumped at the chance and has never looked back.

Today, she runs Amazon Promise from Iquitos, considered the most populous city in the world that can't be reached by road. It's in the northeastern corner of the country, in the middle of the rainforest, and is the capital of Peru's largest and most remote region.
Nearly half of the area's population lives in poverty, and one-third of residents lack access to basic medical care, according to Peru's National Institute for Statistics and Information Technology. Some might go their entire lives without seeing a doctor.

That's what Webster is working to change. She organizes several expeditions to these underserved areas every year. Each trip is staffed by adventure-seeking medical volunteers from the West -- often from U.S. medical schools -- and Peruvian health professionals. A traditional shaman, or healer, frequently accompanies them.

Dr. John Glick met Webster while on a trip to the slums of Belen, near Iquitos, for the Gesundheit! Institute, Dr. Patch Adams' health organization.

"She's an amazing person. She is sort of a cross between Indiana Jones and Mother Teresa and Susan Sarandon," Glick said. "She is a unique and focused individual who is serving the health needs of some of the (poorest) people in the world."

"Sometimes we're in dugout canoes ... and we'll encounter major rapids," Webster explained. "When that happens, you just need to get in and close your eyes."

In the villages, the volunteers provide preventive services such as prenatal checkups and general exams, but most of their time is spent treating a wide range of ailments like malaria, TB, pneumonia, diarrhea, animal or snake bites, and parasites. Teams usually see several hundred patients during each expedition.

The government has donated land for the project, and Webster is working to raise the funds for construction. In the meantime, the group has built a simple structure where it will hold clinics twice a month.

After 17 years, Webster still has yet to collect a salary for her work, and she lives in the group's offices in Iquitos. But while life on a shoestring budget isn't always easy, knowing that she's having an impact keeps her motivated.

"Regardless of whether it's getting to one person or 30 people or 300 people, you make a big difference," she said. "Anything I can offer them that is going to help them ... it's just a real gift.

It's a gift she plans to keep giving for as long as she can.

My last week went something like this:

Saturday, 10 am: left Ho Chi Minh City to return to the U.S.
1:45 p.m: arrived in Manila for an 8 hour layover (we left the airport and spent the afternoon at Mall of Asia, where we got to catch "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D and do more shopping)
10 p.m.: departed Manila and Asia (:() to fly back to the U.S.
6:15 p.m. (still Saturday): Twelve hours later, we arrived in LAX at a time EARLIER in the day than when we left East Asia, given the 16 hour time difference. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around how weird this was.