Tomorrow evening I will bid winter adieu. In what is becoming my annual escape from snow, salt stains and slush, I will board a plane that will take me first to Amsterdam, then to Nairobi. The final leg will deposit me south of the equator in Bujumbura, Burundi. I will land just after midnight on the second to last night of the decade and will spend the next two weeks producing a story about Village Health Works, an innovative health clinic that is providing more than health services to the community.

While the United States, one of the world's richest nations is debating how to reform health care, I travel to Kigutu, two hours south of Burundi's capital to a hilltop overlooking Lake Tanganyika. There I will find out what lessons we can learn in one of the poorest nations.