Like the magazines and TV shows, we too have highlights of the year 2011.
First, the loss: Recruiter Audra Fediurek left us in September for Oxford University and their MBA program. She hates her accounting course, but is on the first boat of the Oxford Women’s Rowing Crew.
Now for the new blood: When you call our office, you may be surprised to occasionally hear the phone answered by a deep male voice: This is Nicholas Sawarna. His main job is writing stories for our website. Nick can talk about anything: eastern European history, Middle Eastern/Near Eastern politics, hockey, etc. Iryna Semenova holds a Bachelor's degree in Physiology, and though she is of Ukrainian heritage, has a passion for German literature and language, and is taking art lessons. Iryna is chiefly responsible for advertising. Cristina Resetco is in the final days of completing her Master's thesis in chemistry. For the scientists among you, her area of study is polymer material science. Cristina uses her research skills to identify innovative methods to find the many hard-to-get people we are expected to recruit. And finally, in January, Alexandra Emery will join us as a recruiter. She received her BSN in 2010, and is currently working in cardiovascular nursing, while also working with us on her days off. To our pleasure, but to her mother’s distress, Alex decided she would put her healthcare knowledge to use by working with us full-time.
In February 2011, I visited Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Even though, over the past 30 years, I have travelled fairly regularly to Saudi Arabia, I am always surprised afresh at how very quickly the cities have, with their many architecturally intriguing towers, become gleaming, modern metropolises. While in Saudi, hiking in the area outside of Riyadh known as the Edge of the World, I satisfied my longing for the romance of the empty desert, with no sign of life, but the occasional camel lurking behind the camel thorn trees. As an aside, I slid down the shale of a steep cliff and stopped only when my knee met a sharp rock. Yes, my kneecap was exposed, but I was given first class treatment in the ER of the King Faisal Specialist Hospital!
In November 2011, five of us spent one week in Doha, Qatar. Hamad Medical Corporation has been providing healthcare to Qatar for many years, and soon (in early 2013), the Sidra Medical Centre, the 350 bed, women's and children's hospital, is scheduled to open. Since the new hospital will soon be looking for hundreds of staff from primarily women and children's specialties, we sought out information about practical day-to-day issues: The costs of basic items. Can you bicycle? How much does a used car cost? What are the schools like? How do you meet men? Women?
So in the new year, look for photos of our new staff on our "About Us" staff page, and read our latest articles. But perhaps our pièce de résistance: Early in 2012 we will have some short videos we took of our time in Doha!
So come back and visit us soon, but in the meantime, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
Want to read more letters?
Visit our page Letters from Helen Ziegler.
