Croissants and Canines

Three things made my morning awesome. One, I got to take a hot shower (much needed after two days of travel). Two, I woke up to the smell--and eventually consumption--of freshly brewed coffee (again, much needed after two days of travel). And three, there were croissants for breakfast. What a treat it was not to have to prepare my own meal yet again. Go Imbrocks! (Side note: some of you may notice that I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about food, which is probably true. Food is delicious. But besides that, French food is particularly tasty. And furthermore, the way I figure, the time zone difference between most of us is probably large enough that if you overlap our "days," there's enough time for about 5 meals, which means I'm entitled to talk about eating almost twice as much in order to match our cumulative daily dietary needs.)

After breakfast, I accompanied the Imbrocks to their church, which has an incredible international community. I probably met people from over a dozen different countries, and everyone was very welcoming and eager to adopt me into their church community for the next eight weeks. One guy, Michael, was from England and had rowed on one of the Cambridge college crews, so it was cool to chat with him about that. He, along with the other 20- and 30-year-olds at the church, have a Wednesday night Bible Study that I may attend this week, since Dave Imbrock usually goes as well. Another guy, Vyorne, goes on regular runs through the mountains, so I may accompany him at some point.

The Imbrock's home church in Geneva.

After the morning service, I also had the chance to introduce myself to the pastor, as well as a few of the church members who work at the WHO. They were really friendly and were surprisingly open to talking about both the positive and negative aspects of the WHO. I do continue to get the sense from my conversations that people have very mixed feelings about the organization--that it is an incredibly influential and far-reaching force in improving the health of its member countries, but that it is also crippled by communication issues, bureaucracy, political sensitivity, and some broken systems. One man warned me that they do not treat their interns well (something that I've heard many times before). One member of the WHO's Department of Ethics, Trade, and Human Rights joked about how her team publishes papers that urge different organizations to collaborate and yet two members within her own team do not even get along well. Or about how her job has her promoting equitable health insurance for all, and yet her own WHO-provided health insurance has been dysfunctional for months, causing her to have to pay for her health expenses out of pocket. Regardless of the nature of the commentary, I've really appreciated just getting to know people who work there and getting a feel for what the organization is like in the eyes of those who comprise it. I'm definitely pumped to start work tomorrow!

This evening, I had the chance to meet up with Amy Beeson for the first time since we've both arrived in Geneva. Amy is the other Harvard IOP Director's Intern at the WHO this summer, and she had flown in from doing thesis research in Peru around the same time I arrived on Saturday. Along with a friend she made at her hostel (her temporary residence until she finds less "hostile" accommodations), we grabbed a bite to eat downtown. The Imbrocks once again saved the day by driving me into the city (I had no bus pass), letting me borrow a cell phone for the evening (I had no means of communication), lending me cash (I had no Swiss Francs to pay for dinner), and picking me up afterwards on their way back home from a birthday celebration (it was raining at that point). It's really been such a blessing to have them assist me, though I do hope that my helplessness does not last much longer. It's kind of disorienting (risky?) being on your own without car, cash, or communication.

I'll conclude this post with some pictures of the guest room here at the Imbrock's, as well as my fine furry friends Barnum and Bailey (Dave and Sue's toy poodles). Cute, huh? They have a funny tendency to push my bedroom door open, walk around my room for a few seconds as if to check up on me, and then walk back out. I'd say we're definitely developing a bond.

"Just checking in."

My room here at the Imbrock's.