By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — As inspirational messages go, it doesn’t get much better than Alice Salthouse’s remarks on Jan. 5, for the first meeting of the new year for The Rotary Club of Blowing Rock at The Meadowbrook Inn.

Salthouse, the founder and CEO of High Country Community Health, describes herself as a bit of an adventurer. Since she goes on at least one mission trip every year, sometimes more, that could be an understatement.

You have to arrive by boat, canoe or airplane. The village was so remote we flew 13 different aircraft to get there and back.

For the Rotary meeting, Salthouse shared her experiences “… about three journeys I took in 2001 and how I am still so grateful for them – even though none of them were easy.”

Her first 2001 adventure was to Ahaus, Honduras.

“When I say remote, I am dead serious,” Salthouse recalled. “It is one of those places where you CANNOT get there via a road. You have to arrive by boat, canoe or airplane. It was so remote that we flew 13 different aircraft (seven going and six coming back). In this village, there was no running water and electricity was available only a few hours of the day.”

Salthouse’s team of six people consisted of four adults and two teenagers. The adults included a physician, a Presbyterian minister, and education specialist and her, a healthcare administrator (Salthouse). The two teenagers included her 13-yearold son, Jake.

“We went into this remote village on a 10-day journey that would affect each of us in a powerful way,” Salthouse said.

Children in this village die from malnutrition.

She said they had made this journey to deliver medical supplies to the clinic there and to help build a house for a man who was a paraplegic.

“Each of us may have had different motives for going,” said Salthouse, “but we were all driven by a desire to help the people of the village. I also had a secret purpose. I wanted my teenage son to see and experience how life was like for people living in third world countries, to see how blessed we are to live in America – and to experience what it was like to be in a place where we were the minority.

“What I had not expected was the effect it would have on me to experience these things. We had beans and rice at almost every meal and were very limited on the amount of water we could use. I have never been so thirsty in all my life. Children in this village die from malnutrition,” she added.

Expecting people of extreme need to be sad and downcast, Salthouse found the opposite to be true.

“These were the most generous and happy people,” noted Salthouse. “Each time we sat down to eat, they made sure we were fed before they ate. I gained a whole new understanding of how good it is to live in the United States. Since 2001, I have been out of the country on a mission trip at least once every year.”

At what she described as “… the tender age of 45,” Salthouse’s second adventure of 2001 occurred in early September.  She said she took up road cycling, not riding around the block but riding 30, 50, even 100 miles a day.

As we flew over downtown Manhattan, my friend pointed out the twin towers of the World Trade Center and told of her son working downtown. She sent a mother’s love down there and wished him a good day. Ten minutes later the first plane flew into the first tower. When we arrived in Atlanta, we learned how the world had changed.

“My friend, Judith Teele talked me into training for a bike ride from Montreal, Canada, to Portland, Maine. It was a total of 435 miles in five days. We formed a team of seven people from Western North Carolina and together we managed to raise more than $40,000 toward research for a vaccine for AIDS. We called ourselves ‘Team Hope.’ We joined with 2,000 other people  and altogether we raised $4.1 million for AIDS vaccine research,” she said.

Salthouse also listed six “life lessons” from this trip.

1. If you are sleeping in a tent city with 2,000 other very tired people, don’t forget the sleeping pills and ear plugs!
2. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night. I learned this from a friend’s experience!
3. Being the recipient of random acts of kindness is really nice.
4. It is amazing what physical limitations people can overcome when they are determined not to give up.
5. Together, we can do things that would be totally impossible to do alone.
6. Never, never, never buy a new bicycle seat before a 435-mile, 5-day bike ride!

For a few minutes after Salthouse playfully listed those life lessons for the attentive Rotarians, all humor evaporated from the room as Salthouse remembered their return flight from Portland, Maine, to Charlotte.

“We boarded the plane in Portland on Tuesday morning, September 11. As we flew over New York City, we pointed out the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty, and my friend pointed out the twin towers of the World Trade Center and how her son had a job in downtown Manhattan. As we flew over, she sent down a mother’s love and wished him a good day. Ten minutes later, the first plane flew into the first tower. When we landed in Atlanta, we learned that the world had changed and that some of the terrorists had been in the Portland airport at the same time as us,” Salthouse recalled.

For my final and most difficult journey of 2001, I didn’t get on a plane. In fact, I didn’t even leave Morganton.

For her third adventure of 2001, Salthouse described it as by far the most difficult, more so than building a house in a tropical climate and harder than riding 435 miles on a bicycle.

“For this journey, I didn’t get on a plane. In fact, I didn’t even leave Morganton. You see, shortly after we returned from the bike ride, my youngest brother, Dean, was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of lung cancer and lived only until Dec. 26 of 2001. Walking with him through those final days was a painful process. As I look back, though, I understand that I learned some life changing lessons on that journey, too,” Salthouse said.

She recalled conversations with her brother, talking about life and what was really important.

“It is remarkable how a terminal illness can cause you to think that way,” said Salthouse. “On one particular day after Dean had been delirious the night before, he woke up and whispered to me, asking, ‘What day is it?’ I told him it was Monday morning. Then he said, ‘You know, being sick like this has helped me understand how many blessings I have had in my life that I might not have known at the time. Just like today, I would give everything I own to get up from here, put on my clothes and shoes and go to work. I think of all the days I did that not realizing what a gift it was. Sometimes, I even grumbled about having to go to work,’ he said.

“So here are the important lessons I learned on my 2001 adventures,” Salthouse concluded:

1. Pay attention to what is really important in life and notice the blessings that may seem little at the time but are really huge as you receive them along the way. The first thing you know, you have reached life’s end and you wonder where did all the time go?
2. Find people you love and who love you – and enjoy your time together.
3. Have a life in which you are generous. The only things in life you get to keep, permanently, are the things you give away.
4. Through these journeys, I have learned to look at the good in this world and seek to give some back – and be grateful for all that I have received.