Compassion = One Skinny Local With a Big Big Heart

The Q & A below took place in September, 2009, with Breckenridge physician Craig Perrinjaquet (PJ). A small medical clinic in the Langtang region of Nepal that was established by Doc PJ in 2006 was the beneficiary of Amazing Grace’s first “Good At The Grace” fundraising day two years ago, which raised $1200 for his work in Nepal.   We hope you’ll enjoy this small glimpse of the good Doc’s good work around the globe.

COMPASSION = ONE SKINNY LOCAL WITH A BIG BIG HEART

Doc PJ, outside The Grace with his trusty steed, in 2009.

What do Tamang tribesmen, bugles, Pygmies and Alexander Graham Bell have in common? Local physician Doc PJ’s goodwill.

Physician and longtime local Craig Perrinjaquet (Doc PJ) pedals into Amazing Grace every morning before work to scarf up a fresh-from-the-oven scone. Then he grabs the bugle that lives on top of the Grace’s aging fridge, leaps out the door, and trumpets out his daily enthusiastic endorsement:  “Fresh Buttermilk Mango (or buttermilk strawberry, or chai chocolate chip ) scones!  They’re really, really, really good!”

Twice a year PJ misses his morning ritual in order to spread a different kind of message. When he boards his flight to West Africa next week, it will be simply one more leg on a long, altruistic journey of extending medical work to communities in need.  He’s worked with refugees in Darfur, with tiny collectives deep in the Honduran jungle, and Buddhist villages in Nepal. For our first issue,  PJ discusses two decades  of dispensing his version of grace.

Much of your volunteer work has been in Honduras.
I’ve been going to Honduras since Hurricane Mitch. Last spring was my 15th trip. I go to a very remote area of the Patuca National Park, near the Nicaragua border, that has no access by road.  So we go by 4WD vehicle, and then mule, and then canoe, and then hike a day or two (through the jungle, by machete) to deliver some very basic health care to people who don’t have access to it.  We provide