Romania Countdown: Ticket, Meds, and Measles

Can you believe how fast time has gone this year? We are 6 weeks out from departure for the Romania trip. This past week I spoke with our travel agent and now have my airline ticket! The itinerary takes me from Iowa to Chicago, through London to Bucharest. The flight home is similar except I stop in my birth state of Texas prior to continuing to Iowa.

The medicine list came through recently as well. So, now we know what drugs we have at our disposal. It is incredible to think about how much work goes into planning these types of trips. The list includes everything from basic antibiotics to acid reflux medications, stool softeners, and pain relievers. It's like having your own mini pharmacy with you!

In other somewhat unrelated news, I recently traveled to Omaha, NE for a conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases hosted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC). It peaked my curiosity about whether the CDC was tracking any outbreaks in Romania. And guess what? They are. Measles. Good thing my MMR vaccines are up-to-date :) Hopefully, we won't encounter any cases, but if so, it would be good experience to see measles personally as the number of episodes in the States are increasing due to lack of vaccination and subsequently decreased herd immunity.

Please continue to be in prayer with me for this upcoming trip. My greatest desire is that the people we encounter will know we are different from other humanitarian groups and they will see Jesus in us and through us. Jesus healed the sick as part of his ministry. My desire is to use the skills and training he has allowed me to develop in order to bring him glory.

If you would like to financially partner with me, the link to the top right will take you to the page where you can donate. My next payment of $1,000 is due in 1 week.

Who and Where?

We’re less than 2 months out from travel to Romania. Recently, we learned who our teammates are and where we will be staying once in country. The key to short-term mission trips is flexibility, but this type-A girl is happy to have some structure to the trip ahead of time.

Our team consists of 2 dentists, 3 physicians, 1 PA (that’s me!), 2 nurses, 1 LPN, a pharmacist, a physical therapist student, a professor, and 10 undergraduate students (3 guys and 7 gals). Our hosts in Romania are a married missionary couple, who are native Romanians and who returned after time abroad to reach their native people for Jesus. One of them is a nurse as well.

The two primarily cities where we will conduct clinics are Baneasa and Constanta (on the Black Sea). We may have an outreach to people in the mountains as well.

Baneasa is highlighted in the Northwest part of Bucharest on this map.

Constanta is on the coast of the Black Sea in eastern Romania.

My next payment of $1,000 is due April 1, 2017 and then I will book my plane ticket.

In other news, for preparation, I have been studying common Romanian terms through an app on my phone called Mondly Languages. Each daily lesson consists of roughly 11 words or phrases. Romanian is a Latin-based language just as Spanish and Italian are. Having studied Spanish, I can attest to some overlap among the vocabulary and grammatical structure, which makes aspects of the language easier to learn. However, Romanian also has a Slavic influence, which has proven to make learning some of the words more difficult.

My sister loves Spanish and has some guru tips for learning to speak foreign languages more fluently, which will help with my Romanian study. She has used a program called Italki in the past and recommended I try it. So, the next step to not being completely clueless with the language is to start studying with native speakers who tutor via web cam. I’m excited to get started!