Our mission officially begins today! We raise anchor in the next 5 hours. Officials have been welcoming hundreds of volunteers onto the ship over the last 3 days. All is now set for us to depart Guam. We muster at 0925. This is the Navy way of conducting a roll call to ensure that everybody on the mission is accounted for and that nobody is left behind.

The sense of discipline and professionalism on the part of the Navy and the mission as a whole is quite striking. Everybody out here follows the rules without question and this engenders a high level of harmony and order. Why can’t society as a whole live like this?

I have also been very pleased with the sense of camaraderie among the volunteers on this mission. I have within the last 3 days met some wonderful human beings whose acts and stories of selflessness fill me with awe and also hope for mankind. A very experienced surgeon with years of service under his belt on our team told me how he decided to quit his practice and spend the rest on his years in practice volunteering for mission like these. A nurse practitioner had to quit his job just to be on this mission because they will not sanction the live of absence she requested for to be on this mission. She states: “I do not have a job to go back to but they opportunity to be of service to people who really need them is enough for me”. These individual receives not remuneration whatsoever to be on this mission. They rather PAY monies by way of airfares and other incidental to serve mankind! The world will truly be a far better place if there were enough of these angels I see on this ship. These individuals and stories put in sharp focus my duties and obligation as a healthcare professional. I am  honored to serve on this mission with them. My presence here will no doubt change, charge and challenge my outlook as a health care professional.

We will be sailing for 6 days. We will be keeping ourselves busy during this time repackaging medications and getting the medical supplies ready for our first mission in Indonesia. Keep following…..