What's in the sack?

I have to laugh every time I think of my first mission trip when the TSA agent opened my suitcase to find 100 plastic speculums. She zipped that puppy up real quick. Now that baggage is just x-rayed or sniffed or whatever, I wonder what they'll think of my can of cornstarch (for a virus transmission game) or the four jars of homemade jalapeno pepper jelly I have stuffed in wild animal puppets to give as gifts--not to mention the makeup kits with the beads. My fellow travelers have a panoply of odd items also. I had to review with Tom what I put in his baggage (13 BP cuffs, 8 glucometers, several boxes of EKG paper for Dr. Bashir, a large package of toothbrushes from our dentist.) I am reminded of the first time we returned from Senegal and I told each of the members of the team to just take a bag from the pile, assuming they would be x-rayed. Instead an agent at the gate quizzed each one of us on what was in our bag ("Uh, clothes?") It's an adventure every time we go.
Jean and I will get off the jet Thursday morning and go directly to Theis where we will meet with the 2010 CHW team to debrief them on their experiences in their public health mission this past year. I hope to hear some good stories from them (and I hope I don't have to make too many changes to the program as a result!) Friday will be our day of rest--and I'll teach the instructors from the Women's Skills Center some new beading techniques. Then we'll be back at the airport early Saturday morning to welcome the rest of the team and find out how they fared with TSA.