Strangest shopping trip ever...

Hi everybody,

I didn't post in the last few days, but if you're following me on twitter, you know that I've been enjoying a wonderful few days in Paris. What a contrast it will be when I get to Chad!!

Yesterday I went to the Embassy of Chad to request a visa, and lo and behold, they were closed! It was their independence day. Not very cool, because they say it takes 3 days to get the visa. My flight is on Thursday at 4pm...

So I went back today, and they said no problem, it would be done Thursday morning. I'm gonna trust them and hope for the best...

After the embassy, with the assurance of the visa, I went on the weirdest shopping trip ever. I had searched online to find a store that sold medical supplies. It's in the outskirts of Paris, "la banlieu" if you know the region. I got there and started grabbing boxes of latex gloves, bottles of hand-sanitizer, seringes, needles, gauze packages, surgical masks, alcohol wipes, desinfectant wipes, and of course, mosquito repellent.

This is the kind of stuff most people never ever get to buy. Even those of us in the medical professions, we (or at least I) just take it for granted, you show up at the hospital, there are gloves, alcohol, needles. Buying this stuff somehow brought it home to me: I'm going to Africa. In 2 days. A place where the simplest medical supplies are scarce at best, and they make do with what they've got.

I think it hasn't quite sinked in yet... but today it's started to...

And the adventure begins...

This is it folks, I'm at the airport, waiting to board my flight to Paris. I think it's actually an African proverb that says "When you travel far, give your soul time to arrive."

It's funny, but my soul is already in Paris. Usually, that proverb is correct and it takes me about a day (sometimes more) to realize I'm actually there. This time, I think my soul never left Berlin, so it just floated over to Paris and is sitting in a café sur les Champs Elysées, having an espresso and a croissant, waiting for my body to catch up. :)

I already have a little list of the things I want to do when I get to Paris. I have the entire weekend free, and only have to go to the Embassy of Chad on Monday morning. Then it's wait for the visa, and fly to N'djamena on Thursday. This means that in exactly one week, I will be in Chad.

I'm excited!!!

I travel a lot, and have been to places with strong cultures, completely different than my own. I've been to Thailand, and India, and Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan. They were all wonderful experiences, and I enjoyed and learned a lot from them. But this is different. First, this isn't tourism. I'm not going to travel around in Chad. I will be living there for 2 months. I will be treating people, and trying to help them. I will be living the way they do, without proper running water, electricity, or basic sanitation. And I think, for the first time ever, I will be in a place where there's an actual risk to my healh, well-being and life. Chad is surrounded by countries in violent civil wars (Cameroon, Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic). Chad itself is being flooded by refugees, mostly from Darfour. The chances of me contracting malaria and being very sick for at least a few days is very high (prophylaxis, DEET and mosquito-nets can only do so much... it's monsoon season).

However, all of those things don't worry me ver much. It's an adventure, of course, but I'm sure I will probably be ok, health-wise. What worries me is the emotional toll of seeing people dying left, right and center, and not being able to do very much to help them. I guess we'll see.....

But there's no turning back now! Africa in exactly ONE WEEK!!!!!   :) :) :)