resurfacing... briefly

Believe it or not, it takes an incredible amount of work and lack of sleep to evacuate 15 American college students from a small west African country. That's what I was doing, and that is absolutely all I was doing, for nearly the last two weeks.

Notes:

• I love my job, and I hate when it takes over my life, and unfortunately I don't think I get to have one without (occasionally) the other. That's a bummer. Not so much for me as for the people to whom I make commitments in other parts of my life, who I then have to cancel on. For the record, I'm not OK with prioritizing that way, but I don't know what to do about it right now. Suggestions?
  
• I recommend sticking to solving crises in your own time zone, if/when you have a choice.
  

Then I went away to the stunningly beautiful White Mountains of northern New Hampshire to learn how to treat all sorts of fun medical problems that might happen in the wilderness. I have to get Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certification in order to moonlight as a group leader on weeklong programs in rural Central America (yay!), which is not necessarily actually the wilderness, but there's nobody in this country who teaches "how to handle medical problems that come up in a small village in a foreign country where you may or may not have reliable electricity, communication, or quick access to a decent clinic." And WFA training was actually a great way to spend a weekend (because I'm a dork. Have I mentioned I totally love this stuff? Who'da thought?), role-plays-in-the-bone-chilling-rain and all, except now I need another weekend.

Because on Wednesday morning at 6am I'm getting on a flight to Nicaragua. Where I'll be for about a week and a half, and then it's off to Panama for a few days, and then I'm back and the month is almost over. Whew.

Clearly I am destined to live the month of March as if someone is leaning on the fast-forward button.