KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
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Kayla Desroches/KMXT
The former medical director at the Kodiak Community Health Center just visited the island after living for about two years in Abu Dhabi working for the U.S. Department of State.
Dr. Paul Zimmer moved to the United Arab Emrites to be regional medical officer at the U.S. embassy there, and his wife, Tia Leber, accompanied him, working as a teacher.
Zimmer says he’s been in Kodiak for 22 years at Kodiak Island Medical Associates and then the community health center, and going abroad was a next step after their kids moved out.
Zimmer says Abu Dhabi was dry and desert-like, the opposite of Kodiak, but it’s also an area rich with oil money.
“They can do anything they want now, so they desalinate the Arabian Gulf to make water and they use that water to make trees in the desert… and each palm tree has a black plastic tube that drips water on it.”
Zimmer says they’re moving onto Senegal next to work for the foreign service there.
