And Here Our Story Begins

        It is hard to believe that it was just twenty hours ago that I stumbled out of the car and groggily pulled my suitcase out of the back seat, past the ugly she/man statue in downtown Baltimore and through Penn station, where my train to Newark International awaited me. Between then and now, I have been on four different planes, in three different countries, in three different time zones and travelled over 3000 miles. More importantly, however, in the last twenty hours I have learned how to distill industrial grade alcohol, been growled at by a "seeing eye" dog named Hermoine, and said Gracias (and just Gracias) about 450 times. But before I continue to enlighten you with stories of my travels I am going to back track a little bit, and fill in some details so you can better understand the the ridiculousness described above.

        As some of you know, for the next 3.5 weeks I will be staying in Iquitos (a city near the rainforest) in Peru to meet the El Porvenir community. For the past year, University of Rochester's Globemed chapter has been partnering with a grassroots organization known as Kallpa Iquitos to help furnish a center that can serve as a cultural spaces for the youth in El Porvenir to continue to work together and empower those around them to work together to improve their community. (I realize that it is 2:30 in the morning, I don't have my glasses, and I am really not doing this partnership justice, so you should check out the globemed website and U of R blog to catch yourselves up on what we have done this far.) As of a couple of weeks ago the U of R GlobeMed chapter met and exceeded the fundraising goal of $3500. Now after a year of fundraising, educating, and enjoying each other's company (way too much), some of us at U of R GlobeMed will finally have an opportunity to meet Zully (our correspondent at Kallpa) and the rest of the members of the community. As you can imagine, we are jumping out of our skin and cannot wait for what this trip has awaiting us. 

          In approximately t-4 hours we will be leaving the Lima airport to take our last flight (at least for a little while) to Iquitos where Zully will meet us. Hold on though, because despite sitting in Starbucks and being surrounded by the sweet aroma of fair trade Starbucks coffee (doubtful) I can't keep my eyes open. So don't move, and ill be right back. But...before I go I will share some travel tips.

Travel Tip #1- Get some sleep before your trip. Even though it might seem like a good idea at the time, staying  up talking to your best friend on the phone the night before a 24 hour trip, might be detrimental to your health (but don't worry Eva, I think it was still totally worth it) 

Travel Tip #2- If you plan a trip on Orbitz and try to find the  cheapest trip be prepared to feel utterly unproductive. For every 300 miles you get closer to your destination, on the next leg of your trip you will travel 500 miles in the opposite direction. (Baltimore-->Newark-->Miami-->Panama City-->Lima-->Iquitos-->case in point)

Travel Tip #3- Try not to sit in front of a guy who mildly resembles Mr. Bailey from Hey Arnold! and gets up ever 5 minutes and in doing so pulls your chair back and releases it so that you feel like a human slingshot

Travel Tip #4- If you plan to travel to Miami make sure you know how to speak Spanish (this is critical). Also be prepared to for people to be frustrated with you if you don't

Travel Tip #5- If you happen to find yourself in an emergency exit row on an international flight, don't automatically nod and pretend you understand what the flight attendant is telling you, but consider giving up the extra leg room (It makes it hard to communicate with the flight attendant the rest of the trip, because you're trying not to make it obvious that all you can say is Gracias)

Okay! Thanks for reading. I will try to improve my blogging skills, and I'll catch you in Iquitos.

Get ready for the land of pink dolphins, pygmy marmosets, mototaxis, and most importantly Kallpa and the El Porvenir community.