Travel Adventures

     Once we touched down we went down a ramp directly onto the runway.  The gravity of that first step onto Haiti didn't occur to me until later when I had some time to reflect on the day.  With nowhere else to go I simply followed the crowd to a nearby building. There our passports were stamped and I realized I should have cashed the check that the Trimedx Foundation gave me while I was still in the U.S. - my first mistake. David graciously paid for us both and informed me “you can’t cash checks here!” which he continued to remind me of throughout the week. We waited a while for our luggage and when it finally appeared I snagged it from the rollers which would spill unclaimed luggage onto the floor. After that we just had to take a few steps to enter the customs inspection line. Once it was my turn I was directed to one of the two tables and the larger of my two bags was opened. The man didn’t speak English and had to call over another man as I tried to expla...

     My day started very early because I needed to wake at 3:30am to drive myself to the airport. I was worried about the forecasted freezing rain and the potential for delays. I realized after parking in the economy lot just how slippery it was. Fortunately, I didn’t have far to go to the shuttle and timing was just about perfect. That left me time to find some breakfast after checking in my two bags – which by the way I somehow got the larger of the two at exactly 50.0 pounds. Security took a little while but the Indianapolis airport isn’t too big. There was a woman, not much older than me, in front of me and an older couple from the TSA precheck merged into our line at that point. I let them go in front of me but they must have thought we were together and once I quickly explained that we weren't the gentlemen said "oh... that's too bad" implying that she was attractive. I think the woman appreciated the compliment. Nothing more came of the conversation, but it ma...

     If you're reading this then you've probably heard that I recently traveled to Haiti. Before I start to share about my experience there I feel I need to mention a few things first. For starters, I work as a biomedical equipment technician at a hospital in Indy for a company called Trimedx. I like to tell people "the doctors and nurses fix the people, but I fix the medical equipment." I enjoy serving the patients in this way and have quite a variety of things to fill my days at work.      The Trimedx Foundation is a non-profit that came out of Trimedx and they help connect and send us technicians to hospitals around the world that need their equipment fixed or tested. I had the opportunity to volunteer last year at a warehouse in Illinois where donated medical equipment needed to be fixed or tested before sending overseas. Sadly, parts and supplies are much harder to obtain in the hospitals overseas and it's more cost effective to do this work in the U....