Day 1 visit

In the morning we paid a visit to the Landing Boat School which teaches students from all parts of the world to build pleasure boat with cedar wood and some with fibre glass. Students build the boat in groups of three or more once the design has been set. After a short tour of the school, we paid a visit to Houston & Co, a company of only four, who manufactures fine furniture from cherry, maple, oak, walnut and ash of their own design. They received orders from a few famous universities in the States, such as Harvard, etc to make furniture for reception and the library.

In the afternoon, we had a chance to visit University of New England, College of Medicine. There are two kinds of medical training, namely, osteopathic and allopathic. Osteopathic will produce DO and allopathic MD. DO practice a ‘whole person ‘approach to health care. Instead of just treating specific symptoms, DO concentrates on treating patient as a whole. 10 % of all practicing physicians in the State of Maine’s are DO graduated from UNE College of Medicine. We visited also the College of Marine Biology of the University. The most interesting thing would be the rehabilitation of wounded seals and turtles which are reported by citizens and the State government would determine where these animals go. Once they recover from their wounds and found fit to return to ocean, they will be sent back to ocean.

Before we call it a day, we visited Biddeford Free Clinic. This clinic provides free medical services to people who are not covered by insurance. All doctors, paramedical staffs and administrative staffs are volunteers. There are only two evening sessions each week. Last year they had 3562 visits and generated value of service of about 4.7 millions. All expenditures are covered by donations or funds raised.