FONDAL, HAITI — The little band of American volunteers sat under a tree, panting and sweating from a taste of daily life in the poor rural villages of Haiti. The group, made up mainly of Iowa doctors, nurses and other medical professionals and students, had spent an hour and a half climbing a winding dirt road up a mountain to this remote village. On the way, they’d seen Haitians making the trek while bearing heavy loads of water, fruit, chickens, firewood and homemade charcoal.
When the volunteers finally arrived in town, scores of villagers were already lined up under the hot March sun, waiting for the rare chance to share their health concerns with a doctor. Casey Panko, a University of Iowa nurse helping lead the team, briefed her exhausted colleagues about the ailments they would treat in the small stucco building that would serve as a clinic.
Rivers as Bridges is a program that examines the sister-river relationship of the Mississippi River in America and the Yangtze River in China. The Yangtze and Mississippi have rich histories and are vital channels of commerce in each nation.
Our bodies do more than house our organs. They carry our genetic makeup, they grow and develop through decades of change, and they figure prominently in that mysterious complex of emotions, perceptions, and insights we call identity. 
The UI 
