Leaving Madison

The time has come! I'm leaving Madison at 7am today. I'll be in Chicago for a few days seeing friends, making sure I'm ready, and nearly exploding from excitement about the trip  that's about to take place!!

For those of you I haven't talked to yet, here's a brief overview of my trip...

I'm going to Zambia, Africa to do some volunteer communications consulting for a health & development program. The program is a branch off of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa (LCCA), and it reaches community members in the capital city of Lusaka as well as surrounding villages and rural areas. The services this health & development program provides are:

1. The Reflect Literacy Project

2. Bio-sand and filter training

3.Home-based medical care 

The Reflect Literacy Project puts learners into small groups, where they select the topic they'll learn about through learning how to read. Most literacy groups are based around a development project such as bio-sand and filter training.

Seeds of Hope International (SHIP) trained members of the Health & Development program  from five urban and peri-urban congregations in the areas of community health promotion and bio-sand filter construction. The participants graduated from the program as Community Health Promoters (CHPs). The trainings took place   in three phases between February and April 2011 with each training lasting four days. A total of twenty-one  functional filters were constructed during the trainings with another nine filters donated by SHIP so the participants could achieve their goal of thirty filters.

My Goal:

To help the Health & Development Program organize and motivate its volunteer base and  provide board members and volunteer coordinators with options and solutions for improving communications at the various levels of the program. 

To do this, I'm talking with people at all levels of the organization--from its founder, who I've been working with this entire time and who has supported and led this entire trip, to influential board members and decision makers, to committee members and volunteer coordinators, to the very volunteers that carry out day-to-day work with the program's constituents.

Itinerary:

Aug 29-Sept 1 - In Lusaka, Zambia

Sept 2-5 - In South Luangwa National Park, sightseeing and going on a safari, visiting Victoria Falls

Sept 6-11 - In Lusaka and surrounding peri-urban and rural areas interviewing volunteers  in local villages.

I am so thankful to have this opportunity to serve people across the world. I am proud of the work being accomplished by the program, and can't wait to be a part of it!

I won't have Internet access while I'm abroad, so I'll use this space to post photos, stories and video when I return

Prepared.

"All things are ready, if our mind be so."

Preparedness is an interesting concept. Yesterday I felt unprepared for my upcoming travels. A friend could see it on my face; I was running my packing list through my mind, thinking of all the little things I needed to buy, gather and pack.

Last night I created a packing checklist with just the essentials. All of my toiletries are packed into a quart-sized bag. All of my clothing serves a purpose. I'm only packing one pair of shoes. Me! Only one pair! 

Now that the material things are set into piles, the true preparations begin. Now it's sinking in.

In a week I'll be in a completely foreign land, getting ready to help people whose culture I know next to nothing about. The combination of excitement, uncertainty and quiet acceptance of the fact that I cannot know everything until I arrive, is truly thrilling. 

I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity. I can't help but think of all of the pieces and parts of my life that have come together to make this possible. God's hand is certainly in all of it. From the conversation with Jason Paltzer about my major in college, to the stages of planning that have steered us in the right direction, to interviews and email communication that have given me insight before I get onto that plane, to the incredible generosity of Dan and Vicky Kunz and the Antioch Foundation, this experience would not be possible without every piece coming together as it has.

The secret to success is being ready for opportunity when it comes. Well, it's here. 

I'm ready...

Let's go!