Background

Like I said, this is the second time I will have traveled to Africa.  The first time was in high-school.  I went with my parents, my dad's church group, and my friend Jake Schisler.  We stayed there for 17 days in April of '05. (their fall due to the hemisphere change)- We basically just rebuilt a technical college.  The experience was so amazing.

All I can say is: Thugs in '05.

We went to a region called Arthur Seat- it was in the bush and not many of the children there had seen white people before.  The coolest experience I had there were the kids coming up to me and just touching my skin to see if it was real.  Good thing I do not have a strict personal bubble otherwise some of those kids would have gotten blacker eyes...you know what I mean.

So- moving on.  The church I go to at home brings in a lot of foreign priests in order to get some new perspectives on Catholicism.  Last year, we had Fr. Richard- from South Africa.  When he was about to leave, my parents approached him about any need there.  After a few weeks of mulling through details, my parents informed me of their decision to spend three months in Africa volunteering their time. 

My first reaction was, "THREE MONTHS!? That's crazy."  I had never thought of going again.  I was in school- set to graduate on time in '09.  I was also in a relationship that I did not want to be away from.  But like many things in life- both those things changed and I decided I wanted to get away for awhile and,  it seemed, that the best way to do that would to be to go to Africa.  I could be gone and help many people at the same time.  Win - Win.

So here I am- preparing to leave in just a few weeks.  While there, we are going to be living with the priest.  We will be repairing some of the local buildings, teaching children English (they speak Xhosa, pronounced Kllo:sa), as well as working in a clinic (which I will be looking forward to the most).  Since I work as a clinical technician now- I think I will be able to provide rudimentary medical care i.e. dressing wounds, giving shots, if needed I can draw blood and start IVs.

It should be an experience of a lifetime and I look forward to living there.  I will miss VT, my friends, and the rest of my family, though. 

Oh, Xhosa is the clicking language and I plan to learn it-  be ready to hear me clicking at you.