Twenty-four hours and two plane rides later, we arrived at our hotel in Mumbai. We are staying at a YMCA International House, which, by the way, if you are ever looking for an economical, clean and modest place to stay while traveling to certain places overseas, I definitely recommend. My friend and co-worker Tom stayed at one in Singapore and had an equally nice stay.
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Anyways, before we began the distribution trip, our Team Leader arranged for us to spend a couple of days touring in Mumbai. Our tour guide Armin happens to have come from a nearby orphanage so the group and I decided to pack a bunch of supplies to leave at the orphanage while we were here.
Lesson learned: be careful what you pack!
Knowing we were going to go to the orphanage, I put out a call to action to my Maverick PR co-workers, friends and family to bring in a few things for me to take to the orphanage. I thought it would be a great way for people to get involved in my trip and the response was incredible. I was able to fully pack one hockey equipment bag with clothing, school and art supplies, toys, pharmaceutical products, candy and chocolate.
When I got to the airport and met my team, they all looked at me like I was a little crazy, wondering how in the world I was going to get this bag with me on the plane. I, on the other hand, figured I would be just fine, thinking the biggest hurdle was finding a bag large enough to fit everything, and then packing it all up.
Before we got in line to check our luggage, one of my team members suggested I weigh it. He took out his trusty pocket luggage scale and weighted my bag. It was 85lbs — 35lbs over the allotted weight limit.
Oops!
Luckily a few of my team members had room in their luggage so I was able to take some of the supplies and disperse them throughout my team. If not, I would have probably had to pay hundreds of dollars in extra fees to take this bag on the plane with me (and I know this, from personal experience). Lesson learned: be careful what you pack and bring along a portable scale just in case!
Thanks, Tom and Leslie!