Friday Morning, November 22, 2014 - 2:30 A.M.

From the cool mountains of the East Tennessee Smokey’s to the hot humid congested streets of Manila it takes 30 hours of Delta flights - Tri-Cities to Atlanta to Detroit to Nagoya, Japan to Manila. The Filipino lady that  traveled next to me from Detroit to Manila is a nurse from England, now living in the Grand Caymans and heading home for her dad’s funeral. Due to an early seat mix up, I met an emergency room nurse practitioner from Wisconsin heading home to visit family over Thanksgiving. She feels badly that she can't help with the typhoon, but her family obligations won’t allow it. 

The Manila airport is crowded at midnight when we arrive; the luggage slow but we are welcomed with big smiles and warm hellos by three Filipino Salvation Army officers who have been in the baggage claim area since 10 p.m. Dr. Nader Tadros, a US trained Egyptian family practice doctor landed around 10:30 p.m. and joins our team of four - Paul a logistician/photographer, Steven, a young internist from Christ Community Health in Memphis and me.  The welcoming group and I huddle around three baggage carts they’ve claimed. It takes a while but everything arrives and customs waves our stacks of trunks, duffle bags and suitcases through with a wave. They contain not only meds and medical equipment but tents, dehydrated food, camp stoves, sleeping bags and a host of other items we will need to just survive and function in the desolation left by Typhoon Yolanda. 

We weave our way in two vans through the congested streets at 2 a.m. Manila hawkers sell their wares and neon lights advertise “massage parlors.’ We arrive at the simple, but more than adequate Malvar Hostel exhausted, but delighted to have arrived.

We wanted to leave later today to fly to Cebu and then Tacloban, which is at the epicenter of the disaster, but no seats were available so we will fly early Saturday morning. After a few hours of rest, we will exchange money; get local SIM cards for our phones and spend the afternoon at the Salvation Army headquarters being briefed and planning for the days ahead. 

Global Health Relief is on the ground!  As soon as we can assess the medical needs and find out how we can house, feed and transport our teams, waves of Good Samaritans will celebrate Christmas season as Christ did, not with family and friends, but reaching out to help a desperate world.