Dehradun, India--Bonnie MacEvoy, Interplast volunteer anesthesiologist.
Up early, to the shuttle, and into the airport, again. This is starting to feel like a recurring theme. Today marks the anniversary of September 11, so it is a stressful date to travel by air, but I can’t focus on that. Slowly some of the team members arrive, a total of five of us who are traveling from California. We were all assembled when the boxes arrived from Interplast. Sixteen cartons and 17 hearty black boxes, all packed to the gills. The supplies in the cartons are used during the trip, so we only return with the 17 plastic boxes.
Our 9:45 am plane was delayed, and we finally boarded at 10:30. We sat on the runway for a while, and then we were off. Luckily we had a long layover in Chicago, so we were not late. In Chicago we caught up with the additional six team members. Then we were 11, and it was time to board. Not surprisingly, we spent a lot of time on the tarmac in Chicago, leaving about an hour late. It has not been a good day for “on-time arrivals.”
These are times of another swine flu scare, and we had a bag of masks for the team to wear if anyone wanted. I had my mask out, but was delighted to find that rare empty seats surrounded me.
The germ zone was not wrapped so tightly around me, and I also had room to stretch out, which made for a much nicer 14-hour flight.
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