Currently, I am at the Gainesville Regional Airport (Gainesville, FL) waiting to board the first of four flights till I arrive in Hanoi. I learned a long time ago that one does not take 4 flights without there being one “misadventure” and hopefully, I have already experienced it.
Backing up a bit. It is ironic that I picked today to leave for Hanoi as it was exactly 7 years ago today when I last left for SE Asia! Totally unintentional, and I did not even remember this fact. It was my daughter, Christy, who reminded me. Also, tomorrow when I land in Hanoi, it will be International Nurses Day. What a joy it is to know that I will be working with my international nursing colleagues to support their nursing education system.
Now for the adventure part…. Back in 2013 when I lived in Kampot, Cambodia for a year as a US Fulbright Scholar, I organized the library at the nursing school. I promised them that whenever I returned, I would bring updated textbooks with the understanding that we would pull the older editions off the shelf, so that they are always using current materials. So, in addition to my two checked bags and a box of NCLEX Exam prep materials for Vin University, I have two boxes of books for Kampot Regional Training Centre for Nurses and Midwives in Cambodia. The problem? Delta Airlines does not have an agreement with Eva Air, who I ALWAYS use to fly to SE Asia. That means once I land at LAX, I must pick up my 2 checked bags and the 3 boxes, haul them to the international terminal that Eva Air flies out of, go through securtiy AGAIN and pay for the luggage AGAIN. I paid Delta Airlines a whopping $620 for my 5 checked bags. Eva Air charges by the kg, after the 2 checked bags, so Lord only knows what those 3 boxes are going to cost. Leaving them abandoned at the airport is not an option!! At the end of the day, those textbooks are worth more than the cost of the baggage fee, both commercially as well as in terms of the potential impact on Cambodian healthcare. It’s been 7 years since I was there, so some things worth doing just come at a higher cost. Now, I am praying that is the ONLY “misadventure” for this trip. We shall see.
More to come…………… Karen
Comments