Smooth Sailing

Cars. Check.
Luggage. Check.
All 11 of us. Check.
Scones, cheez-its, pillows for the car, donuts, hershey's kisses, banana bread (thanks Joanna!). Check.

Actually leaving on time at 7 am? Yep. No big deal.

What a great way to set up our Journees trip. The tone of our group felt positive and surprisingly peppy at 7 am. Maybe we just couldn't help but be excited for our week of shadowing health care providers in Tutwiler and Clarksdale, MS, volunteering for the Tutwiler Habitat for Humanity branch building houses, and ultimately seeking to understand the differences, challenges, and context of medicine and health in rural Mississippi.

And so our 10 hour road trip began, not a problem in sight on a beautiful, crisp Chicago morning. Soon it became a Champaign morning, and then a Missouri afternoon as we cruised on the interstate. At every stop, Kiara would dance to stretch out her legs. As we got further south, it got warmer--there was Jake, keeping it casual in just a t-shirt and jeans (a welcome change from increasingly cold Chi-town). Watching Gladiator in Rebecca's car got us pumped to do some INTENSE service. In Jen's car there was conversation and thinking about rural medicine, sparked by reading an article about the Tutwiler Clinic and the wonderful Sister Anne Brooks (read about her at articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/03/nation/la-na-Mississippi-20100603-34) that we will be working with over the next week. Soon enough, we were passing through Memphis, and eating at a great neighborhood BBQ restaurant called Abe's in Clarksdale, the nearest town to our main base in Tutwiler.

And now I blog to you from home base itself--the habitat for humanity dorms in Tutwiler. Nicer accommodations than we even realized! This week is going to be too much fun. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm missing out on the furious puzzle-ing that's happening in the kitchen (we bought a 1000 piece puzzle during one of our stops)(pic attached). Thanks for your interest in our blog, we're planning on updating every day, so check back often!

Writing happily after a day of SMOOTH SAILING,

The MS1 Journees crew