Nashville - Health

Today (Wednesday, March 30th) we were up bright & early ready to serve at Project C.U.R.E. This was first site where we experienced indirect service, as opposed to direct service. Project CURE is the largest provider of donated medical supplies to developing countries around the world. This organization collects supplies from hospitals & local clinics around the country that will eventually be organized & shipped out to developing nations who are in need of various medical equipment. Project CURE employees and volunteers travel to these countries in order to assess the specific needs of the hospitals and clinics within the community. 

Upon arrival to the warehouse, we were greeted by Lindsey (and her fat cat) who debriefed us and gave us instructions for the day. Our main task of the day was to fill a 40 foot shipping container that is going to be shipped to Zambia that will supply one hospital and two local clinics within the country. The process started with collecting and labeling everything that needed to go into the container. In this shipment, there was everything from hospital beds to crutches to filing cabinets, and even dozens (but what felt like hundreds) of boxes of surgical supplies. As soon as everything was ready to go in, we began our game of live Tetris. After a lot of teamwork, we had our strategy, and boxes were stacked upon hospital beds which were wedged between filing cabinets and chairs. Due to our efficient packaging, we were able to fit in a leg press machine that Lindsey said was donated years ago that never had a place in previous shipments. All the manual labor in the morning built up our appetites, so we hopped on over to Jimmy Johns and stuffed our face with freaky fast food.

After our lunch break, we attempted to go back to the warehouse, but we were sidetracked by a train that was stopped right in our path. After waiting for a few minutes and realizing this train would not be leaving soon, we rerouted our path and finally found our way back to Project CURE for the last couple hours we had left in the day. Once we got back, we wrapped up the shipment and headed over to the extra warehouse to do inventory. This was followed by many outdoor trips back & forth between the warehouses. Some of us went through the damaged hospital beds to locate the manufacturer and serial numbers in order to repair them in the future. We wrapped up our day organizing boxes of crutches and canes. Today was all about teamwork, and we learned so much in the process!

Once we left for the day, we had some time to kill before going back to the church, so we decided to make our way to the Vanderbilt book store. (P.S. Bill Nye will be at the Barnes and Noble on West End in Nashville at 1 P.M. tomorrow!) After building up another appetite, Drew, Isabel and Molly delighted us with spaghetti and meatballs featuring Sarah's homemade cheesy garlic bread, followed by a hilarious game of Cards Against Humanity and ice cream. 

It has been a long day but we are excited to be returning to Project CURE tomorrow to see what the day has in store for us!

Check in with you later!

Love, 

The Nashville Crew