Hello,
We just had another team meeting as we get ready for the mission trip. One week from tonight, we will be in Talanga Honduras. Wow. I am looking forward to it. I think just about everybody is.
Details are coming together for the trip. The main details are in place. Now it is time for the fit and finish type of things. That will be packing and organizing the materials. We take everything in our suitcases with us as luggage. That takes some careful packing and planning. All the donated material has to be broken down and packed carefully. We want it to arrive OK and ready to use. That can be interesting to organize.
We have to look closely at the total weight in each bag and how things are broken down. If it is like last time, Jim will bring his scales and do about 100 deep knee bends as he picks up a suitcase, steps on the scale, we subtract his weight and go "Yes, that bag is ready." or "Nope, time to share things out a bit more."
Speaking of packing: We also bag a lot of it. You wouldn't think about much, but what happens when something leaks on the plane? One year we had a toothpaste cleaning party in Talanga. Hm. What is that? That is what happens when you get a huge number of donated toothpaste tubes with an easy open flip top and put them on a plane. When the plane to Honduras got to 30K feet, our bags didn't have pressure. Many of those flip top tubes popped. It was a _mess_. The lead translator that year was Rochelle Collete. She organized a crew ( half our team and 3-4 volunteers from the church in Talanga ) and they got every tube scrubbed clean and ready to give out when the clinic opened the next day.
Toothpaste tubes pop. Bags get left out in the rain by a jet. Things happen. So we pack with care. The last thing we want is for the dentist to be looking to do a procedure and run out of that one critical item. We will be doing the team part of the packing on Thursday.
The main part of our suitcases will be packed with very practical items. Surgical gauze will do double duty. It will be padding for a sterilizer in a suitcase and then it will be used as gauze in a procedure. After a while we will run out of gauze to use as padding and supply. But still have things to pack that have to arrive in working order. Hmm. What to do? Regular packing material would work, but that is kind of routine. We have to get at least two uses out of everything we bring. Hmm. What to do?
The solution: Paul Moore invited a beanie baby convention to relocate with us. Well, he didn't really. He did talk to some people he knows. He mentioned how we are going to Honduras and how much the kids loved the stuffed animals we brought last time. Next thing he knows, he starts getting a few. Then the word goes out: Paul Moore is collecting beanies for Honduras! And the convention forms. From the way he described it, it was kind of like a storm forming up with a mind of it's own.
So here is a picture of our packing material. They will give joy and fun to many kids in Talanga.
Click for a larger picture. Wow. Paul out did himself here. Bagged up into groups of 10-20,these will do a great job of packing and then later making the day for the lucky kids. Thanks Paul.
Well, that is it for now. The next post or two will be about the team: Who is going, some pictures and background on each of us. Thanks for your support.
Have a good evening,
Blair
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