February 11, 2012
Day 1
Genesis
I guess I
can officially claim today as the first true day of the beginning of my long
adventure south to Haiti. Sure I have already begun part of the voyage, moving
from North Carolina, saying farewell to old friends, receiving a slew of
vaccinations (some of which wrecked havoc on my intestines). But today is
really when it starts: I have begun packing.
The thing I
am currently most worried about is medical concerns. I guess it makes sense
that I have always been a slight hypochondriac seeing as I am the child of two
doctors, but I have been having nightmares of the cholera outbreak which is
currently ravaging the impoverished areas of Haiti. I am confident that I will
have clean sources of water and food and that I will stay in relatively good
health, but there is still a deep, subconscious fear of something bad
happening, thus producing these nightmares (and I haven’t even started on the
malaria medicine yet!).
So, the
first part of the packing process is packing and planning my medicine. Sipro
(an antibiotic), Malarone (my daily malaria medicine), immodium, pebto bismol,
Tylenol, ibuprofen, Lisinopril (my high blood pressure medicine), and
vitamins…not to mention all my toiletries. Hopefully I will stay healthy but
the Eagle Scout in me always tells me to “Be Prepared.” There are other things
to pack, mostly clothes. Luckily I am moving to the tropics where it will be so
hot that I do not have to pack anything very heavy. I am also packing a stack
of books to entertain myself for the great deal of time I will have removed
from social media, internet, and television.
I depart in six days. A 6:30am
flight will take me to DFW the to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and then down to
Port-Au-Prince where I will be picked up by my host-family, the Valdemas. I am
very excited by the uncertainty which certainly lies ahead. I have no true idea
of what my living conditions will be like, what I will be doing, or who I will
meet. I only know that I will indeed be fed, have a roof over my head, and have
at least some access to the internet to keep in touch with friends and family
back home.
My whole life I have had a plan,
known exactly where I was going, when I would get there, and what I would do
along the way. But today, I am throwing the notion of plans and long-term goals
out the window with the intention of living deliberately in the present.
Dear Daniel:
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that this trip to Haiti -- not part of your original plan -- has come your way. And I have a feeling that you'll come back just as healthy as when you left.
Keep us posted!
All the best,
Kathleen Stanley