The Reminder of a Package

Look what got dropped off at the clinic this morning!! 

My box FINALLY made it!

Across the huge Pacific Ocean on a freighter...through customs in Manila, boated from island to island, driven across land, and finally found its way to our little clinic despite the rather obscure addresses around here.

What an abundance! So good to have all my own textbooks, my hammock, favorite scarves, some tea, and a few favorite pictures of course.

Simple things that I didn't think much of when I packed them back in the States, but funny how exciting it is to get them now.

Getting this box reminded me of the first time I got a package when I lived in Africa. It was two months after arriving in the country of Tchad, and involved a very adventurous journey to another village to pick up my package. (You can read about that trip *here* and *here*)

I still remember that it was from my college with notes from other students and a bag of peanut butter M&Ms from some dear friends. How incredible it was to get a package from home after living in the remote African bush in a hut. It was like from a different world.

Within minutes of opening that package, I passed out and it was the beginning of a long chain of events that ended in emergency surgery a day later (read about *here* and *here*) and a month of recovery from the surgery, typhoid, and malaria, and a nice scar on my abdomen that I can still look at daily....

....to remind me of that 1st package.