Thursday, May 31, 2018

Egbe Hospital’s Spring of Life Center Tackles HIV in Kogi State


Peter Gregor, MD, is a respected cardiologist and former professor of practice at Marshall University. Dr. Peter Gregor is also a proponent of charitable medical care and has donated his time and expertise to humanitarian causes in Africa, including Bega kwa Bega, a charity based in Uganda, and the Egbe Hospital in Nigeria.

The Spring of Life Counseling Center at Egbe Hospital provides HIV/AIDS support, treatment, screening, and care for people in Nigeria’s Kogi State. The region is currently grappling with an HIV prevalence rate that is higher than the national average and low HIV testing rates. The Spring of Life aims to increase HIV status awareness in the local population by providing emotional support and counseling before, during, and after testing. 

The Center provides wraparound services in addition to medical care. Clients who test positive are immediately connected to antiretroviral therapy and gain access to nutritional support and home care. The Spring of Life also coordinates community education and awareness training that emphasizes prevention and testing. The center is funded by donations and is located on the same grounds as the Egbe Hospital. Between 2011 and 2015, the Spring of Life tested nearly 13,000 people for HIV.

Friday, May 4, 2018

Things to Remember When Painting Seascapes


For more than 40 years, Peter Gregor, MD, has worked as a cardiologist in California, West Virginia, and now Kentucky. In his free time, Dr. Gregor enjoys painting seascapes.

If you paint seascapes, here are two points to remember:

1. Pay attention to water reflections. Both water and wet sand are extremely reflective and capable of capturing anything happening in the sky. Tone is far more important than color, and for this reason, a seascape may appear more orange and yellow when the sun is setting and more gray when the sky is overcast. 

2. Check the foam. There are two types of foam in seascape paintings: 
Wave foam and surface foam. Wave foam sprays above the wave or is created when a wave breaks against itself or a surface. When you’re painting, make sure that surface foam follows the curve of the wave and that wave foam has soft edges. 
Surface foam rests on top of the water and is usually seen near a wave’s break. Seen from above, and using only the right brain to pick up the edges of patterns, there is often a suggestion of a recurring figure of eight or, seen in the horizontal, this looks like the infinity sign. There is an excellent book about painting water by Bert N Petri called The Complete Guide To Painting Water. In addition, seafoam must follow the same perspective and tone rules as everything else.