Hello from the Homefront,
Although I woke up at 2:30am this morning, I am feeling a lot more rested and clear headed. So, let's catch up!
I arrived at the Entebbe airport at 8:30pm on Monday evening, with my flight scheduled for midnight. After going through security, I went to check my luggage and was told that I would not be allowed to board the plane. My original flight was to Brussels, then Chicago, then home, but now I was being told that I had to fly through Atlanta, JFK, or Dulles International, in order to be screened by the CDC. Now, I had checked for any and all travel alerts before booking my flight, there has not been an active case of Ebola since August 27th, and Uganda closed the border with the DRC back in May. I called United, internally freaking out, but also thankful that I am that "3 hours prior" traveler. As it turned out, unbeknownst to me, United had already re-routed my flight, along with everyone else who was returning to the US. This added another couple of hours to my 30+ flight plan. I lost my aisle seat and was stuck with a middle, but at least I had a bulkhead row. I had a much longer layover in Brussels, which was a beautiful airport by the way, and a frighteningly short layover at Dulles.
Global Entry gave me a massive headstart through passport control, but we all had to wait for screening with the CDC, and I know quite a few people did not make their connections. Once I answered all of the questions, I had to go through passport control again, claim and recheck my luggage, then hustle my exhausted self to another terminal. I arrived as they were boarding, once again grateful for my bionic knee. Whew! I had sent a message to my car service from Entebbe, so my ride was waiting when I arrived in Seattle late Tuesday night. I have spent the last few days unpacking, doing laundry, and mailing off all of the lovely bags I purchased from Grace. Today, I spent a couple of hours adding some slides to the lecture I gave the Radiologists from Congo, and I just sent them the Power Point. My house looks ALMOST back to normal, but I still have random piles of stuff to sort and put away. I also need to iron the adhesive labels off of my new fabric and give it a wash. I won't return to work until Monday, and then I will hit the ground running, as usual.
Max and Sr. Georgina have been checking in and sending photos of the hands-on training, which seems to be going well. Most of the trainees have continued to be eager and invested in learning, with a few of them struggling to arrive on time. We created a WhatsApp group chat for everyone in Lira, and I have been waking up to messages like "Group 3, where are you?" and notes from Max and Georgina in a private chat.
I think a group with less education would have been a disaster, but Rachel and I are impressed with their progress, considering the compact training. Rachel will be meeting with an American Rep from Seed Global, which we are hoping will lead to a partnership for more training. In an ideal world, Seed will give the funding directly to Rachel, and we will be able to move forward with our training program...and never have to deal with Jimmy again. 😂 Fingers crossed!
In a few weeks, I will have a vendor booth at my neighborhood Holiday Boutique. Rachel mailed me 2 boxes of skirts and jewelry made by the midwives, I bought a bunch of earrings from Grace, and I will be selling my postcards as well. My friend Debbie has volunteered to join me, thank goodness. All of the proceeds from the Ugandan crafts will be donated to MHI and any sales of my postcards will go towards my expenses for my next trip. Come by or pass it on, if you're local! I'll take photos and let you know how it goes.
Comments
Post a Comment