I didn’t sleep much at all last night, but I feel totally awake so I guess it doesn’t matter. I really think the Malaria meds have me wired. I did contact my doctor ahead of time and ask how it would react with my Thyroid meds and she said it would be fine. Time will tell. So, it was no problem to wake up at 5:40am after 2 hours of sleep. A quick shower and then dropped my bags down to the lobby. Breakfast was on the 10th floor overlooking the city. I sat with a woman named Christy (not Chrysty from 2008 and 2006) and her Vietnamese son Ashton (age 11) and Dr. Chris who is in charge of our medical team.
Dr. Chris shared the story of her Saturday adventure. She and one of the other volunteers took a taxi across town to get to the Catalyst press conference. The driver insisted that they keep their backpacks in the trunk. When they got out and got there backpacks, the women at the shop nearby started pointing and making a huge fuss as the cab drove off. They had seen the driver take out a laptop from Chris’s backpack. Luckily, the women from the shop had the information on the cab driver and wrote everything down. Chris talked to Caroline and Chris was sent with one of the Eurekaz translators to the taxi headquarters to see what they could do. The cops arrived and they interrogated the taxi driver. Eventually he left and said he did not take it but thought he knew where it was. He came back with the laptop and demanded a reward for “recovering” the laptop. Chris ended up having to give him about US$10 as a reward. It was a 6 hour adventure. So, I will be making sure I am extra careful about the laptop. I brought the cable lock to lock it down in the hotel while we are there. We are in the same hotel all week so that will make it easier. There is the chance that they could cut the cable, but I will have to take that chance.
We are on the bus to Kiang Giang now. It is a 6-8 hour ride depending on traffic even though it is only about 150 miles. The roads are small here and are often one way each way. We stopped 2 hours in at a nice rest stop and enforced the “Sarah” rule of everyone goes to the bathroom even if they don’t think they need to. The Sarah story is from 2004. The short version is that she ended up having to go to the bathroom in a farm house pig pen (literally).
Dr. Chris shared the story of her Saturday adventure. She and one of the other volunteers took a taxi across town to get to the Catalyst press conference. The driver insisted that they keep their backpacks in the trunk. When they got out and got there backpacks, the women at the shop nearby started pointing and making a huge fuss as the cab drove off. They had seen the driver take out a laptop from Chris’s backpack. Luckily, the women from the shop had the information on the cab driver and wrote everything down. Chris talked to Caroline and Chris was sent with one of the Eurekaz translators to the taxi headquarters to see what they could do. The cops arrived and they interrogated the taxi driver. Eventually he left and said he did not take it but thought he knew where it was. He came back with the laptop and demanded a reward for “recovering” the laptop. Chris ended up having to give him about US$10 as a reward. It was a 6 hour adventure. So, I will be making sure I am extra careful about the laptop. I brought the cable lock to lock it down in the hotel while we are there. We are in the same hotel all week so that will make it easier. There is the chance that they could cut the cable, but I will have to take that chance.
We are on the bus to Kiang Giang now. It is a 6-8 hour ride depending on traffic even though it is only about 150 miles. The roads are small here and are often one way each way. We stopped 2 hours in at a nice rest stop and enforced the “Sarah” rule of everyone goes to the bathroom even if they don’t think they need to. The Sarah story is from 2004. The short version is that she ended up having to go to the bathroom in a farm house pig pen (literally).
Yikes! Take care of yourself girl.
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