SYNCHRONICITIES

YES...I am supposed to be in Uganda right now and NOT posting a blog entry but alas, there are always reasons....often hidden. This is the motto I subscribe to as it has proven to be true time and time again.

My flight last night had to turn around after 2 hrs due to a cabin pressure failure (no worries, there was a back up but the problem requires the captain to return) Despite trying to fix the problem at the gate (we hung out on the plane during this) We turned around again after a second attempt to leave. Alas, my departure is delayed by 1 day. Though tired, I try to look at this as a BIG adventure knowing there are surprises lurking around the corner! Who knows what gifts this turn may bring?!

I struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger, Dr Marleen Temmerman, while at the hotel this AM. We ended up having breakast together. Turns out Dr Temmerman was here for a UN meeting re the WHO (World Health Organization). She is an OB/GYN as well as researcher/professor at Ghent University in Belgium and member of the ICRM (International Center for Reproductive Health). Dr Temmerman is a Senator in her country of Belgium working on international legislation to improve the status of Women's Health worldwide. I learned that she started out in international health working in Kenya and ended up staying for 6 years (sorry Mom, it might happen)

I received sound advice on the need to take things slow, learn the culture and understand that change comes very slowly (all of this also said in our CMMB orientation) We discussed the same struggles occurring in  international health politics, the need to have open and non judgemental approach to issues to avoid defensiveness and allow the seeds of change to begin.

I found out that Dr Temmerman knows Dr Eric Arts (Professor and Director of the Ugandan CFAR Laboratories) who will be picking me up at the airport in Entebbe. This was another Synchronicity in that Eric and his wife Courtney have been incredibly helpful in getting me oriented to Uganda and will help me get settled there. I met them through an old grade school mate, Jim Karlovec, who heard about my trip through his Mother (one of my Mother's best friends).

I have had time to reflect on the amazing synchronicities that have occurred over the last 5 months while sitting here in Newark airport. Who says one can't obtain enlightenment in NJ? Those who have heard this story already can attest to the "falling into place" of all things re this mission trip. It's too amazing to ignore. I might actually try and list them out sometime but I fear it may end up sounding like a list of "So and So begat so and so who begat so and so". Truthfully...that is how this is all happening!

OK...In our training we were told to include people stories and pictures. So here you go! Pictures and stories:

Dear Friends Liz and Mike
holding "dinner" on my last visit to
Whidbey Island before I left 

I am shy by nature though am learning through friends and example to just reach out. Last night I was sitting next to a woman with an accent that sounded slightly familiar. She was not smiling despite my offer to give her an extra pillow. I overheard her saying a word phonetically sounding like "Key-Lance" the Hungarian number "9". I asked her if she was Hungarian and she smiled and nodded. We then laughed for quite some time about the only Hungarian I knew (translated as 1 2 3 4, little dog where are you going...it actually rhymes in Hungarian though) We chatted about my family and hers and we both commiserated over the 7 hours on the plane for naught. She was lovely to talk to though I forgot to get her name. She and her husband were on their way to vacation in Venice before visiting family in Hungary and Romania. She was sad that the vacation part in Venice would now be cut short. I wished her the best in her travels.

An amazing Dutch painting at the
art museum in DC

I was sitting on the shuttle back to the airport this morning. Everyone appeared quite grumpy (most of us were on the cancelled flight the night before). People sat fiddling with their cell phones, looking at the floor or focusing on nothing in particular.  No one was smiling. All was silent save for a young woman talking anxiously on her cell phone to someone about her struggle to change her return flight. I was trying not to listen in but it was hard as she was the only distraction on the shuttle. I suddenly recognized her as part of young couple who had been standing ahead of me in line during re-booking of flights from last night.

I had a flashback of this woman looking distraught while in line, waving her hands speaking fast and in near tears. I had overheard her mention that they were coming home with their sons though it was obvious they were not flying with them at the time.

I decided to continue to practice my "reaching out" experiment from this morning. I asked the young woman (Stacy), now sitting across from me in the shuttle, if she was traveling to meet her sons. I  apologized that I had overhead her mention them the night before when in line.

Stacy broke out into a smile telling me that she and her husband, Josh, were on their way to Congo to pick up their newly adopted sons. She was so upset by the delay because they had been waiting against many odds for 2 years to bring them home. They had to be in country for 5 days before the paperwork could take place and 1 day more was just too unbearable to wait. She was anxious as a new mother would be, just wanting to hold her babies (both 23 months) finally in her arms. I wished them both well and suddenly the whole shuttle broke out into well wishes and congratulations. I assured her that I felt all would now be smooth for them. I silently said a prayer for the safe journey home for this new family.

My own Siblings ( Bobby, Me, Marty and Annie) 

There are amazing stories all around us....I suppose one just needs to have the courage to say "HI" in order to open a new and amazing book!