The journey started in Pasco with a quick jump to San Francisco courtesy of United Airlines. There, I met up with 23 other people who will work together for the next couple of weeks. Suffice it to say that we will get to know each other well.
Four of them are familiar: Dr. Frank Walchak (he was the medical director and a surgeon on my last mission; he’s our medical director again), Dave Windom (he was the photo journalist previously and will once again assume the duties of documenting our efforts), and as mentioned before Arlan and Mary Gadeken. It’s great to have some friends along this time although I can already tell many of these new faces will be friends before we finish our long jump across the pond.
The next leg of the journey takes us to Dubai, the city known for the world’s tallest building. As I settled in, I discovered that of the three seats in this section of my row, the one between the other person and me is free. Yippee! Nothing like a little extra space.
The flight is very long. The woman two seats over really wanted to talk so I engaged her for a bit. She’s from Persia (Iran) and has spent the last two months in Los Angeles with her nephew watching CNN. She’s blown away by her discovery that every American owns a gun and that most of us shoot each other openly in the street and movie theaters. I try to explain it to her, but alas, she saw it all on CNN. She’s very sweet despite her misinformation. After that part of the conversation, she turns to Mary Poppins, which she loaded up on our video player exclaiming “I love Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews is so nice.” This is the first of many times she shares this; she watched the movie not once, but four times during the flight and each time was equally thrilled. She’s too cute for words.
I doze in and out of consciousness mostly because I’m going into the uncomfortable stages of hyperthermia. The plan is so cold and my Mary Poppins-loving friend took the extra pillow and blanket. Somewhere over the North Pole, I think my butt froze. I’m not sure what I sat on after that although I was very aware that it wasn’t a comfortable seat. That’s the only complaint I have about this Boeing 777 operated by Emirates, which arguably has some of the most beautiful models er flight attendants I’ve ever seen.
Once in Dubai, we hang out in the airport and visit for a while in a semi-conscious state. It’s about 11 pm when we re-board for Chennai. And yes, this flight was every bit as cold as the last one but I had four blankets this time since the flight was not full. I was quick to grab my quota.
We arrived in Chennai at 3 am local time. All in uniform and looking tired, we ambled our way through immigration and snatched up our bags and 24 boxes of supplies. The Karaikal Rotarians met us with an air conditioned bus and after much discussion decided we could board it for a seven hour ride to the city where we would hold the mission.
I can’t remember ever being somewhere where the entire city seems to be awake and driving at 3 am in the morning. And not just driving, but laying it on the horn and swerving around each other as if the lanes are permanent zig-zags. To say the drive was chaotic would be an understatement. After sharing a Dramamine cocktail with my seat mate and new friend, Dua, who is one of our anesthesiologists, I doze off forgetting about the stop/start lurch that our bus is doing on the road. Other than the fact that I have air conditioning blowing right on my face causing my nose to run, I’m in a blissful state. We are finally getting close to starting the real work.
Three planes, one bus, an Iranian friend, what felt like frostbite, and four installments of Mary Poppins. Now that’s a trip!
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| Airport wait in SFA -- the team decked out in tan and navy |
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| With my Persian seat mate, Nadya. |
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Arab sunset over Dubai -- just before landing |
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| Arrival greeting in Karaikal |
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| Girls with bindis -- me and Dr. Amie Shaw rock our red dots with gold powder. She's half my age and twice as smart with a great heart. She's our pediatrician. |
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