This post will not be all that exciting but remember that this is also my travel =journal so some of these details are just for my memories :)
Last night as I was finishing getting ready my goal was to be in bed at midnight. I was in bed at 12:41 so I call that a success!!! It wasn't just about packing - my 50.6 lb bag was downstairs at 10 pm full of 15 CHOC Walk t-shirts, 12 donated dollies, a small quilt, about 15 pairs of socks/slippers, 20 onesies, 24 pair of bandage scissors for the nurses here, & 4 ear/temporal digital thermometers - much of which I have been madly ordering on Amazon the past week - thanks to the generosity or sweet friends! And yes there were also 5 pairs of scrubs, pj's, a pair of jeans a pair of joggers & about 5 shirts - this was a big change in my personal packing - in the past I brought clothes for every day but I know now that I will leave the hotel at 6 am in joggers & a shirt I will wear for an hour, change into scrubs at the hospital, get back to the hotel at 8 pm on a good night or often 10 pm, shower & put pj's on...so recycling my 1 hour outfits in the morning is my plan! Since my suitcase hit 50 lbs fast I moved all my food to a canvas carryon & I am pretty sure it was about 30 lbs, in addition to my backpack with my computer, camera, headphones, magazines, journal, flight snacks etc (sort of like carrying a 2 year old on your back!) It's a little crazy to look at all the food & think that is my primary diet for the next 12 days - peanut butter, tuna, bagel thins (they travel well), crackers, trail mix, protein bars, crystal light & dark chocolate almonds - sounds like a balanced diet to me??? I know they will feed us breakfast & lunch but sometimes it's questionable so I find it easier to to just pack food!
So if I finished that at 10 why wasn't I in bed earlier...well Doug is out of town, home for the weekend then gone again, so an extensive "honey do list" was needed with about 8 piles on the kitchen table!
Kristen took me to the airport & it was so nice to fly out of SNA & have my luggage sent all the way thru to Tangier. The 1st leg to Dallas was easy - one Christmas movie & I was there it seemed. Fortunately my Dallas to Madrid flight was 30 min delayed as I only had a 40 min connection time & had to take the train to another terminal. I had just enough time to buy a salad for the long flight - I viewed it as my last fresh vegetables & the cute girl at that restaurant asked if I was going to Madrid & I said yes I was on that flight but I was going to Tangier & she said "I'm from there but moved to Texas 5 years ago" I explained why I was going & she said - thank you for helping and loving my people" What a great unexpected connection. At that same foo stand I met Brittany a girl who is on the mission & it's her 1st OSI mission as a Pre/Post Nurse. I was so excited for her & it was nice to travel together.
The Dallas Madrid flight was NOT AT ALL FULL :) except for 1st & Business class where everyone was upgraded to...I ended up with great travel karma & had a full row of 3 seats to myself so I knew there was great potential for sleep!
There was a cute older lady who walked past me 3 times & I asked if I could help her - she spoke no English, had 3 boarding passes & was looking for row 42 which didn't exist on this plan - she was on the right flight but that was her last seat assignment so I helped her to row 31 - in retirement maybe I can be a flight attendant & get some travel perks??? Ya probably not...
I stayed up for the first 2 hours of the flight then settled to sleep - I did sleep most of the rest of the flight - obviously not ideal & I repositioned myself often but it was definitely sleep! In Madrid Brittany & I got a drink at Starbucks & chatted - she is 30, recently broke off an engagement, has done some travel nursing & works in Colorado right now. She is the oldest of 8 children, was homeschooled & is so sweet! We met about 5 other OSI team members as we waited for our flight to Tangier plus 2 students & their sponsor That flight was < 2 hours & we arrived, got thru customs, exchanged money, went thru security & loaded lots of luggage in a van like a tetris game & came to the hotel. It is nice enough - $39 a night I think is the rate so you get the idea we are not at a 3 star place but it's clean, there is a decent bathroom (although you almost need to hurdle into the bathtub/shower) AND.... guess who was assigned to be my roommate??? Cute Brittany :) We were both SO SO TIRED but knew we needed to push thru to get on a Morocco time schedule so after we unpacked we decided to try to go to a market. The person at the desk told us it would be better with a guide so she called someone who spoke English & he came & got us 15 min later. What was going to be a trip to the market turned into an AMAZING 3 hour city tour. Said was our driver- her was born & raised here but lived in London for 12 years working for Holiday inn & returned to care for aging parents as he is an only child. In 3 hours we saw 2 lighthouses & marina areas, a super cool cave, took a camel ride, saw lots of palaces, some pretty look out spots - he was our personal hop on hop off tour guide, photographer & Wikipedia on Tangier...all for $40 for both of us. What a great surprise afternoon we had.
We finished in time for our 7 pm team mtg that went for 3 hours!!! We have a GIANT team - over 60 people for sure - lots of Moroccans, only 5 from the USA, some from Sweden, Australia, Russia & a few other countries. This is going to be an 8 operating table mission (usually its 5 & sometimes only 4) so that is part of why we have so many people - 9 plastic surgeons, 9 OR nurses, 7 of us in recovery, 8 in Pre/Post & 2 in all the specialties instead of 1 (pediatrician, intensivist, speech, dental etc) plus 8 guests from Stryker, the students etc. It's probably the largest team I have been on. What that means is we have ALOT of work to do 0 the goal is 160surgers & probably 350 patients to screen in the next 2 days. We start every day with breakfast at 6:15 - I am a quick morning girl - no fluff so I will get up at 6. As the local coordinator thanked everyone for coming to Morocco to help their children my heart was immediately full. It will definitely be a long, tiring & challenging week but we are in the business of changing lives & if it was easy people would be doing it everywhere all the time - but it takes a group of people who don't know each other but have a common goal of working together to change children's lives for these 12 days! I am up for the task & the immense blessings that come with it. Now I need to get to bed it's almost midnite!
LOVE & HUGS from Tangier!
Last night as I was finishing getting ready my goal was to be in bed at midnight. I was in bed at 12:41 so I call that a success!!! It wasn't just about packing - my 50.6 lb bag was downstairs at 10 pm full of 15 CHOC Walk t-shirts, 12 donated dollies, a small quilt, about 15 pairs of socks/slippers, 20 onesies, 24 pair of bandage scissors for the nurses here, & 4 ear/temporal digital thermometers - much of which I have been madly ordering on Amazon the past week - thanks to the generosity or sweet friends! And yes there were also 5 pairs of scrubs, pj's, a pair of jeans a pair of joggers & about 5 shirts - this was a big change in my personal packing - in the past I brought clothes for every day but I know now that I will leave the hotel at 6 am in joggers & a shirt I will wear for an hour, change into scrubs at the hospital, get back to the hotel at 8 pm on a good night or often 10 pm, shower & put pj's on...so recycling my 1 hour outfits in the morning is my plan! Since my suitcase hit 50 lbs fast I moved all my food to a canvas carryon & I am pretty sure it was about 30 lbs, in addition to my backpack with my computer, camera, headphones, magazines, journal, flight snacks etc (sort of like carrying a 2 year old on your back!) It's a little crazy to look at all the food & think that is my primary diet for the next 12 days - peanut butter, tuna, bagel thins (they travel well), crackers, trail mix, protein bars, crystal light & dark chocolate almonds - sounds like a balanced diet to me??? I know they will feed us breakfast & lunch but sometimes it's questionable so I find it easier to to just pack food!
So if I finished that at 10 why wasn't I in bed earlier...well Doug is out of town, home for the weekend then gone again, so an extensive "honey do list" was needed with about 8 piles on the kitchen table!
Kristen took me to the airport & it was so nice to fly out of SNA & have my luggage sent all the way thru to Tangier. The 1st leg to Dallas was easy - one Christmas movie & I was there it seemed. Fortunately my Dallas to Madrid flight was 30 min delayed as I only had a 40 min connection time & had to take the train to another terminal. I had just enough time to buy a salad for the long flight - I viewed it as my last fresh vegetables & the cute girl at that restaurant asked if I was going to Madrid & I said yes I was on that flight but I was going to Tangier & she said "I'm from there but moved to Texas 5 years ago" I explained why I was going & she said - thank you for helping and loving my people" What a great unexpected connection. At that same foo stand I met Brittany a girl who is on the mission & it's her 1st OSI mission as a Pre/Post Nurse. I was so excited for her & it was nice to travel together.
The Dallas Madrid flight was NOT AT ALL FULL :) except for 1st & Business class where everyone was upgraded to...I ended up with great travel karma & had a full row of 3 seats to myself so I knew there was great potential for sleep!
There was a cute older lady who walked past me 3 times & I asked if I could help her - she spoke no English, had 3 boarding passes & was looking for row 42 which didn't exist on this plan - she was on the right flight but that was her last seat assignment so I helped her to row 31 - in retirement maybe I can be a flight attendant & get some travel perks??? Ya probably not...
I stayed up for the first 2 hours of the flight then settled to sleep - I did sleep most of the rest of the flight - obviously not ideal & I repositioned myself often but it was definitely sleep! In Madrid Brittany & I got a drink at Starbucks & chatted - she is 30, recently broke off an engagement, has done some travel nursing & works in Colorado right now. She is the oldest of 8 children, was homeschooled & is so sweet! We met about 5 other OSI team members as we waited for our flight to Tangier plus 2 students & their sponsor That flight was < 2 hours & we arrived, got thru customs, exchanged money, went thru security & loaded lots of luggage in a van like a tetris game & came to the hotel. It is nice enough - $39 a night I think is the rate so you get the idea we are not at a 3 star place but it's clean, there is a decent bathroom (although you almost need to hurdle into the bathtub/shower) AND.... guess who was assigned to be my roommate??? Cute Brittany :) We were both SO SO TIRED but knew we needed to push thru to get on a Morocco time schedule so after we unpacked we decided to try to go to a market. The person at the desk told us it would be better with a guide so she called someone who spoke English & he came & got us 15 min later. What was going to be a trip to the market turned into an AMAZING 3 hour city tour. Said was our driver- her was born & raised here but lived in London for 12 years working for Holiday inn & returned to care for aging parents as he is an only child. In 3 hours we saw 2 lighthouses & marina areas, a super cool cave, took a camel ride, saw lots of palaces, some pretty look out spots - he was our personal hop on hop off tour guide, photographer & Wikipedia on Tangier...all for $40 for both of us. What a great surprise afternoon we had.
We finished in time for our 7 pm team mtg that went for 3 hours!!! We have a GIANT team - over 60 people for sure - lots of Moroccans, only 5 from the USA, some from Sweden, Australia, Russia & a few other countries. This is going to be an 8 operating table mission (usually its 5 & sometimes only 4) so that is part of why we have so many people - 9 plastic surgeons, 9 OR nurses, 7 of us in recovery, 8 in Pre/Post & 2 in all the specialties instead of 1 (pediatrician, intensivist, speech, dental etc) plus 8 guests from Stryker, the students etc. It's probably the largest team I have been on. What that means is we have ALOT of work to do 0 the goal is 160surgers & probably 350 patients to screen in the next 2 days. We start every day with breakfast at 6:15 - I am a quick morning girl - no fluff so I will get up at 6. As the local coordinator thanked everyone for coming to Morocco to help their children my heart was immediately full. It will definitely be a long, tiring & challenging week but we are in the business of changing lives & if it was easy people would be doing it everywhere all the time - but it takes a group of people who don't know each other but have a common goal of working together to change children's lives for these 12 days! I am up for the task & the immense blessings that come with it. Now I need to get to bed it's almost midnite!
LOVE & HUGS from Tangier!
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