I have a penchant for maps. What probably could have been an hour-long visit was two hours, because I was more interested in the nurse telling me what stories she knew about these pins. More than once as she patiently tried to work her way through the laundry list of health risks in sub-Saharan Africa, I interrupted her to ask why someone was going to, say, Benin, Africa. Or to Uzbekistan? Turkmenistan too? Opposite the wall with the world map is a board with postcards from around the world. Patients take time out of whatever they are doing in far-flung places to send a kind hello to travel nurses at San Juan Basin.

Many of the unusual places are destinations for military personnel. Others are the go-to place for mission work. The locations of those pins make sense. But places like one of the “-stan” countries are off the beaten path. The vaccination nurse told me that Durangoans will go to places like this to explore for oil or gas. Which made me wonder: What compels a person to explore for natural resources in a far-away country? More so, what successes is he or she having? And who is going to Gabon and why?

There was a cluster of pins in East Africa on the map. Durangoans seem to be spending a lot of time in Kenya and surrounding countries – Tanzania and Uganda.

One Durangoan who travels to Uganda with some frequency is Kathy Darnell, a co-founder of a non-governmental organization called Step Up Uganda. Darnell has been working with Ugandans for about 10 years, to improve the lives of women, young girls, AIDS widows, teachers and more. She is passionate about the land and its people. Each Mother’s Day, Darnell’s organization sponsors a Mother’s Day Telegraph 5K/10K run, which raises money for Step Up Uganda.

Darnell and her organization use the money raised from that event to help build a school in Katosi, a small village outside Uganda’s capital, Kampala. St. John Bosco Orphans’ School has about 230 students, many of whom have family members afflicted by HIV/AIDS.

Next week I’ll visit St. John Bosco, showing readers the school that Durango built and how they’ve affected lives of orphans across the world.

Meanwhile, after seeing the pins on a map and attending postcards at San Juan Basin Health, I’m spinning wheels in my head to find a way for Durangoans to share their travel experiences with Herald readers. Cliché as it is, “if these walls could talk,” we could tell some really great stories.