It was a 36-hour trip, punctuated with reminders that they were going to a dangerous place. It was a little eerie, seeing the American warships headed in the same direction as the doctors boat, Espy said. Once in Albania, the doctors were trucked to a refugee camp. Espy worked there each afternoon, spending his nights and mornings delivering babies and performing surgeries at a hospital. Working in Albania, the poorest country in Europe, proved to be a shock.
People have no phones, no running water and open sewerage.
Once the trip was over, Espy couldn t get what he had seen out of his mind. He had told Albanian health officials he would help them get better equipment. But Espy meant it. And Espy brought an Albanian doctor, Alma Peri, to the United States to train for five months with him at his Marietta practice, OB-GYN Associates. He promised to bring three or four more Albanian doctors a year, at his expense.