Centrum or Advil???

Before they get to customs

Despite all my blessings tonight I am sad.  All the medications came today from MAP International and they’re great. So many things we need. I’ve got one suitcase fully packed. Of course I can’t let customs see the meds when I come into the country. I have a full receipt for everything, but they would try and take them. Someone in their family could use what I am bringing in or it would sell on the black market.

So I pack carefully and then cover them all up.  I’ve travelled so many times I know what puts customs people off, condoms and my black dongs. (I use them for AIDS trainings) So as you can see the before and after photos, I doubt the guys at the borders are going to dig through the condoms.  

This adds a whole new meaning to cover up!

It’s the decisions you see that I hate. The Claritn is out and so is the Pepcid and the Metamucil for constipation. Those are no brainers. I have a 80lb limit (or 50lb per one suitcase and I’ll probably have to pay a little bit more for the second one) But  I have an abundance of multivitamins and Advil. Which is more important? Which one should I bring? And in what kind of world do we live in where someone must make that decision given the poverty of the place I’m going.? I think of the constant coughing of the children, so the cough tabs and dimetap are immediately added as are the kids multi-vites. But for the grownups, the women…vitamins are probably better than pain killers… Did you know that 1 in every 18 women where I work dies in childbirth? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine going into an OB practice and thinking if there were 9 women in that room pregnant, one would die?

Sometimes being a raindrop just doesn't feel like enough.

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