Almost there....

Howdy to all of you!

I thought I'd update everyone on where I'm at....no, still not in
Africa, but getting closer. I finished the written part of the ER
boards on Tuesday, which was the last big hurdle to get out of the way
before I leave, and despite eye strain and a bit of a headache, I'm no
worse for wear. Thanks out loud to all of you who were praying for me.
I have to admit one of my worries going overseas is losing some of my
professional 'edge', so it was good to try to consolidate some of that
info. We'll see if anything sticks. So now it's trying to get all my
stuff loaded into bags to take over with me without going over the
airline limits. It's gonna be tight, yet one more round of purging to
go (my mom's quilt and the bathrobe didn't make the cut, but dominoes is
still in...for now).

It's been a busy month since I left Denver, traveling around to North
Carolina, Houston and Chicago to see some of you and your beautiful
kids. I am chomping at the bit these days to get out there, but I don't
officially leave until Nov 21st, so if you're around and we haven't
already made plans to get together, your last chance is rapidly
approaching. It's been great to see all the support out there and
people who are genuinely interested in helping the people of Zambia. If
you don't know what's going on with the world's efforts to help with
diseases like HIV and malaria, drop me a line and we'll chat. If you
still want to know how to get involved and help, we should also talk
before I leave. Unfortunately, I did get turned down by the Gates
foundation in my attempt to get some malaria research funded through the
hospital, so I'm going to wait to get on the field before I draw up any
further plans right now.

I appreciate your continued prayers and support. My biggest concerns
right now are about transitioning to a new culture and new friends,
never very easy for us introverts. Keep me in your prayers for that.

Good to see and hear from all of you! I'll write again from the other
side of the world!

Matt

p.s. If you haven't checked it out already, you should see the blog:
mattcotham.blogspot.com. I update it much more frequently that I send
out emails and it's got useful info about the millenium goals and zambia
in general. I even put a RSS feed on it so if you have a homepage like
yahoo or MSN or google or something like that you can get it delivered
to your computer when it's updated....