On the Way to Guatemala July 9, 2010

So the adventure begins. Right now I’m on a plane over Mexico—on my way to Guatemala with Singular Humanitarian Experience (a subset of Choice Humanitarian). The past two weeks included some crazy deadlines and a lot of work. I’ve been working with Tyler Delangue and Rebecca Bordero, as well as others, to create Job Aids for medical procedures and a lesson outline for a Health and Sanitation class. The process went something like this: Tyler gave me six topics that he wanted covered as Job Aids. I looked through the book called, “Where There is No Doctor” and got all the info that I felt should be included, typed it up the material in shared Google Documents. Tyler and Leanne looked over the material and added more. Then we share the Doucments and Catherine who translated them into Spanish. While she was translating, I formatted the English Job Aids—adding pictures that Rebecca. (She scanned and me emailed them to me after I specified which ones I wanted from the book.) When the formatting was adjusted and approved I copied and pasted the translation into the English Job Aid. It was quite the process –but it was awesome seeing it come together with each individual’s contributions. I printed and laminated everything –I’m still in the process of putting the laminated sheets into notebooks (3 ring binders) and cutting out the handouts and last few job aids.

IT was a really busy morning and I was running and I was running around everywhere. It was quite a relief to get to the airport. Sara Amodio dropped me off on her lunch break—she sure is a great friend. As I sat at he gate I noticed a woman wearing REI sandles and carrying an REI jacket and backpack—it was a good bet that we had the same destination so I asked her. Her name is Rachel and she is my new role model. She is so intelligent, accomplished, fun, kind, and beautiful. She’s the mother of three but she’s in much better shape than I am—she’s a tri-athlete. It sounds like she has an awesome husband—she’s just great. She met two other expeditioners on our first flight: Joey and Jace. They served their mission in the Polochic Valley and they have so much information to share. They’re both so funny too! We had a five-hour layover in Las Vegas—so the four of us have become great friends.

I’m excited! This whole trip (hopefully) will provide a great opportunity to help and also enjoy –and just slow down. I’ve been so blessed.