Meet my 25 new besties

After many hours at the airport, I was rewarded with meeting the 25 people I will share this experience with for the next couple of weeks. As people started to assemble, the uniform was the dead giveaway: navy blazer, khaki bottoms and a white shirt – you must be with the Rotaplast team. I did ask one guy walking by if he was part of the team and he said “no” but that he’d join if I was going to be part of it. Nice. I’m already recruiting.

I’ve met the team. To my delight, these are fun and generous people…and very impressive with a wide range of experience and skills. Many of them have done multiple missions – I think one person said it was her 22^nd mission! There are existing relationships, but everyone has embraced me kindly along with a few more newbies. It’s going to be a great trip! I’ll write more about each person as I learn more about them.

Evelyn (AKA Evil-Lyn) and me

One person who quickly took to me was tiny little Filipino Evelyn, one of our OR nurses. She approached and asked my name. My name tag says “Elizabeth” to match my passport, by I quickly said Lisa…or even Liz. She jumped right on that – “Lizard!” So I shot back that I had her number and dubbed her Evil-Lynn for the rest of the mission. We’re having fun. Here’s a picture of her. She’s got an infectious smile the brightens her whole face and a sense of humor to match.

I’ve got to hand it to Rotaplast for all of the logistics planning. Being part of this delegation, we got to go right to the front of the line – in front of 200+ sets of glaring eyes. I gotta say it was kind of awesome. You could tell everyone was wondering who we were to get that kind of privilege. It’s probably as close to celebrity I’ll ever feel like.

Breakfast?

After visiting at the gate for an hour, we departed SFO and spent the next 13 hours in flight. I’m pleased to report that my Tylenol PM cocktail was very effective – I pretty much slept through the whole thing. Other than some blanket warfare with my seat mate, it was pretty comfortable. I sprung $50 extra for an exit row…the right thing to do.

I have to say Philippine Airlines is in need of a new chef or whatever the job is for selecting the menus. A breakfast arrived around 3 a.m. looking very reminiscent of dinner about 11 hours earlier. Leftovers? Three beat-up grapes and two cubes of rock-hard honeydew melon was the only distinguishable difference. I ate one grape and after stabbing my melon with my fork unsuccessfully, I decided to spare my teeth. I don’t care that we have a dentist as part of the team. I don’t need that kind of trouble. Oh, and that yellowish glob stuck to the foil on the left I was later told was egg. Kinda inspired me to go back to sleep!

After changing back into my uniform, Evil-Lynn showed up to try on my fierce high heels. They’ve been a topic of the mission so far. Those of you who know me, know that my choice in footwear isn’t always practical. But I do like my shoes. Tiny Evelyn stood tall for a few minutes and a photo-opp. It was pretty cute.

I’m liking this so far!

Yep, that's them. The fierce shoes.