~PJ
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
change in flight plans
Below is an excerpt from the email I received earlier from the Haiti Command Center Logistics Team:
"We have been informed that the runway lights at Port-au-Prince airport (PAP) will not be in working order at night for some indefinite time. This means that no aircraft can land in PAP after dark."
Needless to say, our flight has been rescheduled for earlier in the day. (Good thing I learned that lessons of "flexibility" and "sleep deprivation" in grad school, eh?). Hmm... Since it will be daylight, I wonder if I'll be able to get a photo from the air...
I'm excited to get there - anxious to get started. Everyone asks if I'm prepared - and the honest answer is, I think so, but I have no idea. How do you prepare for something that you know will impact you in a way nothing before ever has?
Apparently by bringing your own toilet paper (thanks, Jennifer!)
~PJ
"We have been informed that the runway lights at Port-au-Prince airport (PAP) will not be in working order at night for some indefinite time. This means that no aircraft can land in PAP after dark."
Needless to say, our flight has been rescheduled for earlier in the day. (Good thing I learned that lessons of "flexibility" and "sleep deprivation" in grad school, eh?). Hmm... Since it will be daylight, I wonder if I'll be able to get a photo from the air...
I'm excited to get there - anxious to get started. Everyone asks if I'm prepared - and the honest answer is, I think so, but I have no idea. How do you prepare for something that you know will impact you in a way nothing before ever has?
Apparently by bringing your own toilet paper (thanks, Jennifer!)
~PJ
Friday, February 26, 2010
on the way to PDX bound for Haiti
Hi everyone!
Hopefully this isn’t the first you’re hearing about me heading to Haiti to do medical relief work, but if it is, well, I suspect you’re not THAT surprised.
My intention had been to type this last night, wile drinking a glass of wine and relaxing… But if you know anything about my family, you know that we love physics, and subscribe to the theory that if we try have a big enough “to do list,” we will work fast enough to approach the speed of light and bend the space-time continuum (thus allowing for enough time to fit in all of the projects that we’ve committed to). You also know that packing always happens at the last minute.
Needless to say, thanks to the generous donations of the Sherwood Rotary, Newberg Providence, Broadway Apothecary, and friends and family, I was up until 2am trying to figure out how on Earth I was going to fit 150 pounds of stuff into my suitcases.
Many of you have asked what I’ll be doing, where I’ll be staying, etc, etc, and the easy answer is “I’m not sure.” (Sorry for the brutal honesty, parental units). There has been a lot of discussion about what I might be doing, and the opportunities that exist for me to make a difference, but I only have so much time, and Hermione Granger never gave me that damn time-bending-necklace-thing.
Here’s what I know: I am leaving for Port Au Prince to work with Project Medishare. My intention for this trip is to impact as many lives as possible, and serve in whatever capacity I am able - as Ghandi put it, to “be the change I wish to see in this world.”
I suspect I will be staying at the tent hospital set up on the airport grounds (see photo below), but it is my understanding that Project Medishare has clinics in outlying areas that are in need of help as well.
Crazy, huh? They’re doing about 50 surgeries a day… IN A TENT… I kind of expect to see “Hawkeye” (Alan Alda) making gin in a make-shift still next to me. (mom just asked if I was going to be “Hot Lips”…)
Just to give you an idea of the size of the tent hospital, the tent marked “volunteer quarters” houses about 140 people. (see pic below)
Anyways… We’re about to the airport, so I’ll have to cut this short. I’ve been told by Verizon that my internet should work in Port Au Prince, when the satellites are working, so I’ll try to email pictures and updates when I can. (Which also means you can email me, and I can get your messages…) Please feel free to forward this on!
Okay, I’m off to “solve problems and save lives”…
--
"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ~unknown pharmacist~
~PJ
Hopefully this isn’t the first you’re hearing about me heading to Haiti to do medical relief work, but if it is, well, I suspect you’re not THAT surprised.
My intention had been to type this last night, wile drinking a glass of wine and relaxing… But if you know anything about my family, you know that we love physics, and subscribe to the theory that if we try have a big enough “to do list,” we will work fast enough to approach the speed of light and bend the space-time continuum (thus allowing for enough time to fit in all of the projects that we’ve committed to). You also know that packing always happens at the last minute.
Needless to say, thanks to the generous donations of the Sherwood Rotary, Newberg Providence, Broadway Apothecary, and friends and family, I was up until 2am trying to figure out how on Earth I was going to fit 150 pounds of stuff into my suitcases.
Many of you have asked what I’ll be doing, where I’ll be staying, etc, etc, and the easy answer is “I’m not sure.” (Sorry for the brutal honesty, parental units). There has been a lot of discussion about what I might be doing, and the opportunities that exist for me to make a difference, but I only have so much time, and Hermione Granger never gave me that damn time-bending-necklace-thing.
Here’s what I know: I am leaving for Port Au Prince to work with Project Medishare. My intention for this trip is to impact as many lives as possible, and serve in whatever capacity I am able - as Ghandi put it, to “be the change I wish to see in this world.”
I suspect I will be staying at the tent hospital set up on the airport grounds (see photo below), but it is my understanding that Project Medishare has clinics in outlying areas that are in need of help as well.
Just to give you an idea of the size of the tent hospital, the tent marked “volunteer quarters” houses about 140 people. (see pic below)
Anyways… We’re about to the airport, so I’ll have to cut this short. I’ve been told by Verizon that my internet should work in Port Au Prince, when the satellites are working, so I’ll try to email pictures and updates when I can. (Which also means you can email me, and I can get your messages…) Please feel free to forward this on!
Okay, I’m off to “solve problems and save lives”…
--
"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ~unknown pharmacist~
~PJ
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