Let the unloading begin

After a few days of exploring the country and acclimating to the culture, the end of our cultural awareness part of our trip arrived, In a long, hot, sweaty way!!!! Part of our responsibilities when the "Mission" component begins is to unload all of the prosthetic supplies from Bac Si Ha's brother-in-laws (Anh Du) house. Mind you this very beautiful house is 4 stories high, has a very narrow spiral staircase and the upper floors do not have air conditioning. This makes for a very long, tiring, sweaty, painful day. Our team arrived at 11:30 am, and begin this 2.5 hour process of carrying from the fourth floor to the first floor enough prosthetic supplies to fit approximately 600 amputees. Molded plastic, metal bars, braces, molded feet etc.... After one trip up and down the stairs it was clear that the cultural awareness abruptly ended, and the hard work acutely began. Although this day is exhausting, it is a means to an amazing end for those 600 amputees who will once again walk, pain-free. I hope to tell more stories about these patients as the mission continues. Stay tuned.