Author Darlene Nastansky
Combining my love for the outdoors and medicine, I have practiced Orthopedics as a Physician Assistant for 11 years.
In 2009, I left to pursue my dream of travel and adventure.
I packed up everything and left for a 12 month jaunt around the world, with time to volunteer in third world medicine, publish articles, climb peaks and rent motor-scooters.
My experience continues to open more avenues, I find myself speaking at fundraisers, packing for a return voyage to Ethiopia for a specific medical cause, freelancing ....
The flood gates of my dreams have opened!
No one would have guessed 23 years ago, as a teen parent, I would have pulled myself from the throes of poverty into the dreams of a lifetime.
As a young girl nurtured beneath the Arizona sunshine, I found my way to the Northwest where climbing, mountain biking, back country skiing and trail running were never far away.
My newest quests include sultry twilight passages, unfamiliar utterances, chaos, foreign soils and trading medical knowledge with the third world.
Please feel free to contact me at info@elephantcloud.net
Around the colossal baobab tree mamas in bright kangas sell tomatoes and red onions while the village elders gather seeking shade. A scattering of chinese rusted bicycles perched up on stands lean into one another. School girls in frayed uniform skirts of green and blue run past. Heads turn as the white land-cruiser explodes through […]
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My mother told me once if you kill a spider it will rain. Well, it hasn’t stopped raining in weeks and I’m not about to curb my appetite. Just moments ago, a hairy one scurried into the bathroom so I captured it and tossed it in the toilet. It took 10 freaking minutes until it […]
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Volunteering for FAME Medical Clinic since December has its benefits. Aside from getting to know the locals, we have befriended many of the Maasai staff. Evenings, they come by and we laugh trying to communicate, learning a few Maasai words, lots of pointing. Never short of a smile, their company is wondrous, I have become […]
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Sitting on the ground, I share the shade of an acacia tree with fifteen mamas from the Barabaig tribe. They ask about my hair, skin, freckles, about my tribe and wonder why I am so small, did I not get enough breast milk as a baby? They think all white women are chunky and look […]
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Jay rustles just as dawn breaks and when I look up, he kisses my cheek, whispering its still early. I drift asleep as he pulls the door closed; the still morning begins to stir with crickets and song birds. Jay strolls the grounds, camera in hand until young Jomo breaks his silence. The two walk […]
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