And we're off and running!

Hey Everybody,
This is Dawn and Vanessa. We are now headed to Singapore by way of Atlanta and Tokyo.
We are excited, a little nervous,but mostly happy to not be at work right now (just kidding). We know the real work starts soon.
We'll be in touch when we get to Singapore.

Off to Singapore and the two students

I'm off to Singapore tomorrow morning. Well, I should say to New York then Tokoyo then Singapore. Whoa, a long plane trip for someone who isn't fond of flying. Someone pointed out to me they know little about the students going on the mission (or about me). I finally learned how to add the two students (Vanessa Doorasamy and Dawn Horowitz) as bloggers on this site and they should soon be posting, first with a post about themselves. I will do the same once I get to Singapore.

Guest Blog - Haiti blog from David Herzenberg

David was a nursing student of mine last summer when I was still teaching in California. He recently finished his BSN and is getting ready to take the NCLEX, the licensing exam for RNs. He just came back from a medical mission to Haiti and he kindly agreed to share his blog postings with us. I love his writing style - very personal and you feel like you are there and as he describes it a 'stream of consciousness'. Note though, I didn't edit his postings so if you are offended by strong language you should skip this. His experiences in one week are much more than what most students get in their entire programs. Please select guest blog under pages to see his postings about Haiti.

Indonesia and the three locations for the mission

Indonesia is, by population, the fourth largest country in the world.  Geographically, it consists of 17,000 islands that straddle the equator.  It is also in an extremely seismically active area of the world and thus is subject to frequent earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and tsunamis.  Culturally, the country's population consists of 300 ethnic groups with many cultural differences.  You can easily find more specific information about Indonesia by doing a search on the internet.  For our mission, we will be visiting 3 locales.  We will spend the first week anchoring in Morotai.  Morotai is an island in eastern Indonesia and is one of the northermost islands.  It was the site of a major battle during World War II.  It is a heavily wooded island that today mainly produces timber and resin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morotai).  The second week will be spent anchoring in Ternate.  Ternate is a island in eastern Indonesia that was most famously the leader of the "Spice Islands", once powerful because they were the main producer of cloves.  Ternate is a visually dramatic cone-shaped island that is dominated by Mount Gamalama, a volcano that erupts regularly.  Earthquakes and tsunamis are comom on Ternate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternate).  The last week we will be anchored in Ambon.  Ambon is an island located south of Ternate and is covered by a rainforest.  It mainly produces tropical crops such as cassava (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambon_Island).  After we leave Ambon, we will travel to Darwin, Australia, which is where we will leave the ship.  This information is from Wikipedia which also includes more information on each subject.

Excitement and anxiety

First, I will say that it isn't clear that we will have regular internet access once we are in Indonesia on the USNS Mercy so I will be front-loading this blog with information just in case.  I also am contacting some people I know who are doing medical missions in Haiti that I will ask to provide guest blogs on their experiences.  I titled this current post 'excitement  and anxiety' because that is certainly what I am feeling as our mission fast approaches.  First, what can I say but WOW what an opportunity has been presented to me.  I haven't ever done anything like this and the two students joining me also said the same thing.  Definitely an exciting endeavor but also one that is provoking some anxiety.  First, I truly have an issue with motion sickness.  One of my worst experiences in life was being on a sailboat that sailed out of San Francisco Bay into open water.  I spent hours leaning over the side of the boat doing, well, I think you can guess the rest.  However, no way that is stopping me.  Also, some of my closest friends have politely hinted when I told them about the mission that they didn't quite see me 'roughing it' for 5 weeks.  Hmmm, not sure what that means, but definitely have to prove that one wrong.  Then I got an email from a nurse who is currently on the Vietnam/Cambodia leg of the journey.  She reported working 12 to 15 hour shifts, the latter if you go ashore, sometimes 8 days in a row.  I think the max I did when I first was a RN was 7x 12 hour shifts in a row, and that was killer.  Also, we were initially told that we would be placed in Officer's quarters, but her group initially was placed in the open birth (100 beds with berth stacked 3 high) but then later moved to Officer's quarters (6 beds).  There are more volunteers on the Indonesia leg of the mission so the open berth may be my fate for 5 weeks.  Do I sound like Private Benjamin or what?  Serouisly though I can play this up all I want but the reality is this is an exciting adventure for me and after 5 weeks I get to return to what in our global community is a pretty privileged life while the people I am working with live far from privileged lives permanently.  My hope is to contribute a little, learn a little, and to come back with a little more perspective.  

New Experiences

In less than 2 weeks, two nurse practitioner students here at Florida International University and I will be boarding the USNS Mercy, a Naval Hospital ship, in Singapore, bound for a 5 week medical mission to Indonesia.  The mission is a joint effort between Project HOPE and the US Navy as part of the US Navy's Pacific Parntership 2010.  I have included links where you can find more detailed information about Project Hope, the US Navy's humanitarian efforts, and about the Pacific Partnership 2010.  Briefly, Project Hope began in 1958 as a volunteer effort with the goal to "make health care available for people around the globe."  For many years, Project Hope consisted of a floating hospital ship staffed with volunteers that traveled around the world provding medical care and education.  It eventuallly became a land-based organization, but after the tsunami in South East Asia in late 2004, Project Hope returned to the seas by joining efforts with the United States Navy.  Project Hope and the US Navy now sponsor yearly medical missions to both South East Asia/Oceania and to Haiti/CentralAmerica/South America.  The purpose of this blog will be for the students and I to share our experiences on what I believe is a first for all 3 of us.  It is a fantastic opportunity for us and we hope this blog will prove interesting and perhaps a little enlightening.