Preparing
Closer and Closer. The date of departure is slowly creeping up on me. I am overwhelmed with emotions daily. Excitement! Fear. Curiosity. Wonder. Anxiety. Passion. Hope. Everything about this trip is new for me since I have never been out of the country. It seems that the inexperience with global travel has also intensified every emotion I have ever felt and brought them all to light again. I am mostly excited, curious, and hopeful about this excursion because of the chance to improve someone's life through my knowledge. It fascinates me how vastly different populations can be and how far education can go. As the adage goes, "give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for life" or something like that. I know that even if we cannot cure an ailment or relieve an ache for the citizens of Guatemala we can still make a difference in their daily lives by teaching them which foods or herbs may help improve their symptoms or how to stretch or massage an area for more comfort. That alone has me excited!
This past Tuesday (May 7th) our group of students met and consolidated medications and supplies. Then we packed up each suitcase as close to weight as we could. We have been extremely blessed to have so many people donating medicine and supplies! We have also been blessed with funding from a multitude of donors to help with even more supplies and help cover the costs of travel. I don't know that we will ever be able to say thank you enough. I do hope we can make this a recurring event for the students at MTSU (which is the goal). Whether it be to Guatemala or another underserved population, it will greatly enhance future nurses.
So as I said before I am extremely excited and every day it becomes more and more real. The packing party was the first wave of realism.... I am close enough to start thinking of packing! And then I started making lists of things to do and buy. That list is almost finished and I am close to being packed and ready. I know it is still early but it gives me time to make sure I have everything. I feel like the worst side of my Type A personality is coming out when it comes to packing and preparing. haha. Well I believe that is all for now. I will be posting and sharing pics when I return so keep an eye out.
xoxo
This past Tuesday (May 7th) our group of students met and consolidated medications and supplies. Then we packed up each suitcase as close to weight as we could. We have been extremely blessed to have so many people donating medicine and supplies! We have also been blessed with funding from a multitude of donors to help with even more supplies and help cover the costs of travel. I don't know that we will ever be able to say thank you enough. I do hope we can make this a recurring event for the students at MTSU (which is the goal). Whether it be to Guatemala or another underserved population, it will greatly enhance future nurses.
So as I said before I am extremely excited and every day it becomes more and more real. The packing party was the first wave of realism.... I am close enough to start thinking of packing! And then I started making lists of things to do and buy. That list is almost finished and I am close to being packed and ready. I know it is still early but it gives me time to make sure I have everything. I feel like the worst side of my Type A personality is coming out when it comes to packing and preparing. haha. Well I believe that is all for now. I will be posting and sharing pics when I return so keep an eye out.
xoxo
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