Dawn til Dusk...a typical day

Our mornings usually begin around 6am with the noise of a shower through the thin walls or the loud voices of the staff outside our house preparing breakfast. We attempt to sleep until about 7am, where the talking, cooking, showering, and toilet flushing inevitably forces us out of bed. We crawl out of our mosquito nets, and I (Cait) into the cold shower (if that's really what you can call it). I wear flip flops into the shower (to protect against any unknown foot fungi while here, eww), and turn on the water. Amy and I have discussed that even though the showers are consistently cold, we continue to turn the hot nozzle on, just in case any trickle of warmish water decides to come our way. The shower has two water spouts, one that drips from the top and a hose that pours out the bottom. After bringing the hose up to a level where you can wet your hair/rinse, the pressure completely leaves the hose, so you must use the spout that drips from the top, which is now pouring out more steadily--it's quite the balancing act. After the shower, I usually attempt to dry off with my hand towel size camping towel, which is definitely not as absorbant as it claims to be. I did decide to splurge on a normal towel at the a mall, so that's made a real difference. After getting dressed, I head to breakfast, which usually consists of white bread or rolls, jam and peanut butter, some type of fruit, and tea and coffee. The toaster at the house is a little tricky, it toasts very well done, and only on one side. If you leave your toast in there for longer than 30 seconds its char-grilled. We have found that the most effective technique is to toast each side side for approximately 15 seconds, flipping in between. The coffee is on-and-off, some days quite watery, but others really nice and strong. The powdered milk for coffee and tea is actually alright, but after looking at the container's label, I think it could be baby formula. After breakfast, and some conversations with the other volunteers about their days, we usually head back to the room to pack all the necessities for the day. This includes, but is not limited to, bug spray, sunscreen, chapstick, pen and notepad, hand sanitizer, tissues, flashlight, hair brush, english-kinyarwanda dictionary, umbrella, swiss army knife, journal, book, camera, cell phone, computer and/or zip drive, lunch/snacks for the day, and utensils for said lunch/snacks. We learned the last part the hard way when we bought yogurt, but didn't pack spoons and had to try to drink the yogurt from the containers. Passion fruit was even trickier--trying to suck or use our fingers to get it out proved very embarrassing because of all the people walking by our little picnic. So after showering, eating breakfast, and packing our necessities, we head off on our 45 minute walk to work. As we walk down our road, Niboye (pronounced Nee-boy-ee), we come across women sweeping the street (what the point of sweeping dust away that will be there again in a few hours, we don't know), men landscaping for their Umudugudu (village community), and children walking to school. The men and women sometimes greet us with a Murakoze (Good morning), or just stare and stop their work for a moment. The children will regularly shake our hands and say 'morning' or 'how are you?', and sometimes (as happened the other day when we got lost, and were losing hope) random children ran toward us with open arms for a big hug. Needless to say, a great way to start the morning. When we get onto the main road there are people walking to work, walking to market, and walking to many other places (we're not sure where, but they always seem to have somewhere to go), there are moto's and cars whizzing by, and the sun is usually just starting to feel hot on our skin. As a side note, being Westerners, who always seem to try to cram as many 'productive' things into the day as possible, we usually walk as fast as we can to get from place to place. Well after trying this strategy on our first day at work, we arrived to work puffed and hot, and no one even cared that we were early. So, we've been trying to remind ourselves to take an African pace to life, slow down a little and not rush the moment. After all, being 30 minutes late here is just as good as on time. 1 hour late, and your a little late. And when things get put off until the next day, no worries, why hurry? Ok, so back to our walk to work...as we approach the second rotary and section of shops close to work, we see our first set of armed guards in front of some of the shops and around the construction on the rotary. Not only are these security/government/police officials armed with rifles, but their fingers are actually on the trigger the entire time they are standing guard. This was only slightly scary the first time we saw it, but our volunteer coordinator assured us that she's never seen them actually use the guns, unless they needed to. After passing through the last section of shops and construction, we are almost at work. I will leave the actual work discussion for Amy's blog, as our daily activities are clearly way more than just work.
After work, we may stop by the internet cafe, a 5 minute walk from work. Regularly the connection is bad, or the power may go out, which can be a bit frustrating when our only means of communication is by email, but nevertheless, we try to roll with the punches. We may also stop by a small convenience store to pick up some cookies, snacks, or other treats to break up the rice and beans diet, or may buy some mango's from a woman carrying them on her head. There's definitely a rush hour when we head home as well, people all heading home after work, or heading home after searching for work all day. After our walk home (sometimes we opt for a moto if we're tired), we usually unwind with the other volunteers and tell each other about our days at work. For dinner we usually have rice or spaghetti, potatoes, some sort of vegetable with sauce on it, and small pieces of meat...sometimes fish which is great, other times beef that tastes like it's been cooked for 3 hours too long...but I usually try to force it down, at least for the protein. All 9 of us eat together at a big table each week night, which has a really nice, family meal feeling about it. After dinner we may read for a while, shower to get the layers of dust and sweat off, tell stories, or give each other backrubs (very happy about this recent trend!). Anywhere between 10-11pm we usually head to bed, I put my earplugs in, and Amy and I both climb back under our mosquito nets, and sometimes fall asleep on top of our blankets for another balmy African sleep.

Kigali after dark....

Little did we know, Kigali is a party town! The last thing we expected when we arrived in Rwanda was to have an active social life outside volunteering and networking with other organizations. While enjoying a smoothie at a cafe our first week here, we met another American guy who works for Red Cross studying rainfall and predicting floods in Africa. After talking for a while, he mentioned he would be in the city on the weekend and would we like to go out for some drinks. Of course Amy and I agreed (I mean, it's pretty hot here, and one can get very thirsty). We met him and a few other Americans who work with him in a small village outside Kigali at a bar called Papyrus. After requesting three different bottles of white wine off the menu, none of which were in stock, we ordered a Rose. The waiter brought it out, and it was warm. Not room temperature, or slightly chilled, but warm. Luckily, the owner happened to walk by, and spoke excellent English, and grabbed the bottle and said, "Come on, this needs to be chilled!" So after getting a wine cooler, ice, and some nice conversation, our first night out in Rwanda was becoming pretty eventful. After a couple glasses of wine, we hit the dance floor where we boogied to mainly American pop, rap, and r & b music, and occasionally something local or latin. We struck up multiple conversations with some local guys, and by the end of the night had arranged to have every meal for the next day paid for! Sweet! We met a guy named Titi (the now infamous "Mr. Wrigley") who works for Wrigley chewing gum, who (while trying to explain his job) listed every flavor of Wrigley chewing gum to Amy. After a second wind, we decided to head to another bar for a night cap before heading home in the wee hours. The moto drivers took us to this bar that was in a residential part of town, and seemed to be in the middle of no where. Although we were the only muzungu's (foreigners or white people) there, they played great dance music and the beer was ice cold. Going out in Kigali, we got to see the more affluent young people in Rwanda, living a seemingly successful, western lifestyle. We have also been "networking" with other volunteers in the area after trading stories about our experiences so far.
So in the spirit of going out...lets discuss spirits. Our 'on a budget' choice for drinks has been a number of the local beers, the cheapest of which is Primus at about $1 US dollar each. It tasted pretty close to a Budweiser, so we've been pretty satisfied with that. There are a number of others such as Mutzig, Skol, and of course Turbo King. There is also of course normal spirits such as vodka, whiskey, rum, and a home-brewed gin from Uganda called Uganda Waragi. We also saw wine being poured out of a bag at the bar, so definitely opted for beer instead.
This weekend we met up with some guys who work at the U.S. Embassy and were treated to some first-class transport when they picked us up in a white suburban (probably the nicest car I've seen in Rwanda, thanks U.S.A.). We went out to the usual hangout, Papyrus, where we met more volunteers. Amy and I found it really nice to talk with like-minded people who are passionate about helping out over here. Of course the dancing, drinks, and crazy moto rides make for a memorable night too :)
xo Cait

Rwanda vs. Ivory Coast Football Champs!

On Wednesday we went to the semifinal of the African Under 17 Football Championship, Rwanda vs Côte d'Ivoire. Nations from around the world have been competing over the past few weeks to qualify for FIFA U-17 World Cup which is being held in Mexico later this year.  My youngest brother Nathan is in the New Zealand U-17 Team which qualified last week at the Oceania Football Championships to play at the World Cup so I more than excited to be on the other side of the world watching teams that the New Zealand team will play against in a few months time.  The tickets were cheap so we decided to take the  children from the FVA school with us to the game.  We walked the short distance from the school to the stadium with 9 excited children, none of whom had been to the stadium before let alone an international match.  We did a head count at the gate and found that we now had 10 children, an extra  child had attached himself to our group somewhere along the way. What was one more?.. sure he could come too. When we arrived there was a group of a few hundred men gathered and waiting to go through security. Police armed with batons held this scary looking group back and security personal ushered Cait, Lucy and I, each with 3 children hanging off our arms, towards the front of the crowd where we waited to go through the slow security pat down and bag check.  Security didn’t seem to be in any rush to get the crowd through this check despite the minutes counting down to kickoff.  Cait and Lucy were on the other side of the fence and I was nearly at the front of the security queue when there was a rumbling noise from the crowd behind me as it started to surge forward.  At this moment my heart was thumping and I feared that the children and I were about to be trampled in a stampede that seemed to be close to breaking out. It went through my mind at this point that perhaps the decision to come to the football ourselves, let alone with a group of children, was perhaps one of the stupidest decisions I had ever made.  The police stood their ground and after hitting wildly with their batons for a minute or so the crowd settled down and returned to waiting patiently. I was more than relieved to get to the other side of the fence and into the stadium. To say that us 3 muzungo (white people) stood out would be an understatement. Despite the stadium being nearly full I am confident that we could have been spotted in less than 30 seconds by anyone who was looking to find us. The game and the atmosphere was incredible – it was like nothing I had ever seen or experienced before.  The crowd chanted and cheered and vuvuzela horns pierced the air all around.  The crowd, which by now where all on their feet, went wild when Rwanda scored the winning goal. Presidant Kagame, who was at the game, would flash up onto the big screen periodically throughout the match and the stadium would cheer madly and announce proudly that there on the screen was the President and how much of a good man he was.  The game ended in much elation and the Rwandan team hoisted their coach on their shoulders as the supporters excitedly sung, danced and celebrated. The celebrations continued on the street and in cars as we headed to catch a moto home.  The final is being played this Saturday and I can only imagine what that will be like.

FVA Orphanage

On our second day of orientation we were picked up early and headed a short way out of the city into rural Kigali to visit an orphange being built by FVA. Part of the programme fee that we paid goes directly to the construction of this orphange. There was a marked change to the landscape and the surroundings the further away from the city we got. Fields of produce, basic farms and small shacks lined the dusty red dirt roads. The poverty was more apparent and children wandered barefoot and in dirty clothes. As we pulled up to the site children wide eyed and smiling appeared from houses and looked on curiously at us, the muzungo. The orphanage is in the early stage of construction and is being built on a large piece of land. A few local families are using part of the land to grow vegetables and beans. Some of this produce feeds their familes and the rest goes to the other FVA programmes, partner orphanages and the volunteer house. We watched on fascinated as women sifted husks and dirt from beans which were laying on tarpulins drying in the sun. The sons of one of the ladies were adorable, the youngest in particular. He looked about 3 years old, barefoot with big brown eyes and eating raw corn on the cob. The children loved the attention, happily taking our hands and showing us around "their" dirt patch. They happily posed for photos and excitedly insisted we show them the image on the camera screen after each photo. It made me smile when I asked the ladies sifting beans if they were happy for me to take a photo of them and they too excitedly posed for the camera and giggled seeing the photos of themselves. We later found out that one of these ladies and her two sons, the ones we had been playing with, have nowhere to live so sleep in the field, taking shelter in the tin tool shed on rainy nights. The youngest child was was actually 5 years old and malnutrition had serverly stunted his growth.
We spent the afternoon at the FVA offices where we met Peace who will be our interpreter and some of the ladies we will be counselling and working with. As it was Tuesday the ladies were busy weaving baskets, this activity the income generating component of the Gender Based Violence Programme. The ladies were lovely and welcomed us with warm Kinyarwanda greetings.
Axx

Bring out the tissues...

On a more somber note, we had our orientation yesterday and visited the Genocide Memorial Museum in the city. We had a lovely morning tea with the coordinator Claire, where she explained some of the program details, rules, customs, and program fee breakdown. She assured us about the dress code; that as long as we don't wear mini-skirts or anything too provocative, people would be fine with our clothing and we shouldn't feel disrespectful. It was great to hear her point of view about volunteering and how far the programs have come since they started receiving volunteers in 2009. She also talked about her openess towards volunteers beginning new initiatives and suggesting improvements for their specific programs. Amy and I were definitely excited about this, since we had heard from past volunteers about the challenges of the program we are participating in (Gender Based Violence). She also described some of the challenges that we may face such as poor motivation, lack of communication, poverty, violence, abandoned children, HIV/AIDS, and many other issues. We had to hold back tears as she described why some of the kids are orphaned...some because their parents died of AIDS, some are genocide survivors, and others were simply abandoned; one boy in particular was found as a baby by authorities in a dog's mouth. She explained their struggle not having any family, not seeing any future for themselves, and the lack of preparational training for them when they leave the orphanage.
After learning more about Faith Victory Association, Rwanda, and the programs we'll be working in, we visited the Genocide Memorial Museum. At first it was like any other museum, describing the different turn of events leading up to the genocide, the political climate, pictures, and video interviews with survivors. As we continued through the exibitions, there was a chilling section containing thousands of individual pictures of people killed during the genocide, truly putting faces to the numbers. They also had skulls, bones, and clothing from people who were killed, some of them crushed and stained. It was interesting to see that without the tribal affiliations, which were imposed by the Belgium settlers, the people of Rwanda would have lived in perfect harmony. Instead, a system of hatred and hierarchy was imposed that eventually led to the genocide where colleagues, neighbors and family members murdered each other. The most emotional part for me was pictures of children that had been murdered and small descriptions of their favorite foods, personality, and how they were killed. These beautiful, innocent children who were leading happy, healthy lives, shot in the head, beat with a club, or slashed with a machete. It is truly unimaginable. Outside they have planted beautiful gardens to surround the mass graves, where about 300,000 of the over 1 million bodies are buried. Although we've had such an amazing time in this Kigali so far, today served as a reminder of why we are really here, what Rwandans went through during the genocide, and the issues they still struggle with.
xo Cait

More About Kigali..

For the next two months while we are working here in Rwanda we will be based in the capital Kigali. In many ways it is a surprisingly sophisticated and advanced city by African standards but one of many contrasts. Motorbikes, old pushbikes, local buses crammed full, latest model range rovers, the occasional rickshaw and many motos (motorbike taxis) all share the mainly red dirt roads. Horns toot regularly as traffic winds in and out, avoiding pot holes and often other roads users which may or may not be going down the wrong side of the road. The streets are incredibly clean and litter free. Road works and constructions are underway throughout the city as it continues its regeneration projects to transform the city back to its former glory and attempt to keep up with modern times. It’s hard to tell at times if buildings are in the process of being pulled down or in fact being constructed. Shanty slums with corrugated iron roofs dot the hills and a handful of modern skyscraper buildings can be seen in city skyline. Using brooms made of sticks and with babies strapped to their backs women can be seen dusting the sidewalks and gutters, children in school uniform walk hand in hand down the road, and men and women alike balance anything and everything on their heads as they go about their daily lives. It’s hard to comprehend that 15 years ago piles of bodies lined these same streets.

            We moved into the volunteer guesthouse yesterday which is about a 15 minute moto ride away from the city. By western standards the house is basic but well above what we were expecting and had prepared ourselves for. There are 7 bedrooms in the house each housing 2 volunteers, 3 very basic bathrooms with cold showers and toilets (minus toilet seats), a lounge with a few couches, a dinning room and kitchen (although all the cooking is done over coals in a cooking hut out the back). The house is inside a fenced compound and has a courtyard and vege garden out the back. There are 2 house staff which do the cooking, cleaning, maintenance and security. Cait and I are sharing a bedroom which has 2 beds, mosquito nets, bedside tables and a standing wardrobe. We unpacked last night and are both feeling settled in our new home. It was great to meet the other volunteers who come from all around the world - France, USA, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, UK and Cambodia. We have our orientation and training on Monday and start work on Tuesday. Today we have splashed out and are sunbathing poolside at Hotel Des Mille Collines ("Hotel Rwanda"). Again it’s hard to believe the atrocities that took place right by this pool not so long ago.

Axx

Primus and toilets

After day two in Rwanda, I honestly feel like we've been here for weeks. I feel much more comfortable here than I imagined, although of course we get plenty of people staring and saying hello, but slowly getting used to that. Yesterday we met a few more vvolunteers and went around town with them. One of the guys whose been here for a while took us on a really long walk around the city, through shops and across to the other side of the city to get a better idea of where everything was. I bought a purse (my ugly day pack I brought along from home just wasn't cutting it anymore), and had to shop around before I found someone that would go down in price. First they started at 25,000 RWF, which is about $40 (and it was a made in china bag), so had to pass by that one. Ended up getting a nice, cheap black one that even fits my laptop for 10,000 RWF or about $16...and it even had the word 'delight' imprinted in the side...pretty fancy. Anyway, we ended up at this awesome cafe thats literally in the middle of the woods/rainforest/jungle, has private bungalows, couches in the grass, and seems to be built into the land. They had the most delicious smoothies (mango, pineapple, coconut, and passion fruit) that were so huge they ended up being our lunch. It was a very relaxing afternoon, and luckily they had wireless internet (although very slow) but enought to get our first blog entries posted. We met another American guy there who works for the Red Cross as a geographer, studying rainfall and predicting floods all over East Africa...pretty cool, and he had been here for about a year with no plans to leave. Last night, we found this little bar across the road from our hotel where we had our first Primus (Rwandan made beer) that is semi-comparable to Budweiser, and they came in these magnum bottles, so we just chilled out there and enjoyed for a while. Our waiter, Moses, spoke pretty good english and taught us how to say Cheers in Kinyarwanda (local language) and a few other useful phrases that we've already forgotten. Unfortunately we had to 'break the seal' after the Primus, and went to use the worst smelling toilet in the world, one where a bucket of water is used to flush. Words cannot describe this smell, but Amy and I shared my scarf to breathe through while we tried as quickly as possible to get out of there. As we were about to leave after the traumatizing bathroom incident, a nice older man sat down next to use and encouraged us to stay with another beer. We were going to head home but decided, why not. He also spoke english pretty well, but french even better, so luckily a fair amount of my french from high school (Thanks Ms. Jones) came back to me. Ended up that he is a major in the Rwandan military, and introduced himself as "Major Innocent", and was at the bar because another member of the miltary is the owner. He told us some crazy stories about his travels while working with the President Paul Kagame, how he went to Australia (closest he got to NZ, sorry kiwi's), how he's been to America and met Hillary Clinton when she visited here. After telling us about some current military activies in neighboring countries, he assured us that Rwanda is the safest place to be. We're not positive that he was legitimate, but made for a really interesting evening! After peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, we were asleep by 9pm, and cozy as can be under our mosquito nets.
xo Cait

Muraho Kigali!

So after 42 hours travel time (Amy), and 24 (Cait), we were (no surprise) exhausted by the time we arrived in Kigali. When I arrived at the border patrol, the man asked me if I was volunteering, and of course I answered yes. He told me that I needed a visa (which I didn't apply for as advised by the embassy and the organization). Oh crap, now I'll be deported or detained. Luckily he let me in anyway, but told me I should get the organization to get a work visa for me. After asking the coordinator here, she said, oh no, he doesn't know what he's talking about. I guess someone in uniform doesn't necessarily mean qualified. I did have a warm welcome from the driver though, who held up a sign with my name on it. After speaking french to him for about 5 minutes, he told me he only spoke a little English and Kinyarwanda (the local language). Oops. Anyways, managed to get to the hotel, after passing some armed guards at the airport, and the room was definitely better than expected. Amy and I each had a twin bed, mosquito net, and even a connected bathroom with toilet, sink, and shower (by shower I mean a small square plastic platform to stand on and tiny shower head that drips cold water)-at least it's better than a bucket of water. After venturing into town today, the poverty, development, and way of life is becoming a little clearer. Our program coordinator took us on a public bus, which did not have the most pleasant smells or comfortable seats, but is definitely the affordable choice (other than walking) at about 20 cents per ride. The city was busy, bustling, dirty, confusing, and thrilling. It was jam-packed with all types of stores, vendors, and people selling everything you could imagine. We went into the 'mall' where we met up with another volunteer at a coffee shop to hear his take on this new place. After describing his difficulties and successes with volunteering here, he took us to this incredibly western looking grocery where we bought a Kinyarwanda/English dictionary, some peanut butter and crackers, and cheap cell phones ($17 for the phone, charger, and start-up minutes). After our adventure in town (mom and dad, don't worry), we took moto's home. They are like motorcycle/taxis where the guy carries an extra helmut, you just hop on the back and hold on while they weave in an out of the foot and car traffic. A very exciting end to our day. When we got back, the cook here at the hotel made a delicious dinner of rice, fries, green beans and carrots, lentils, and beef in some sort of stew. Amy and I probably only ate half the plates, and mentioned it feels strange to be throwing away food in a place where there are so many people going hungry. At any rate, we had a pretty awesome first day out in Kigali, and are both thoroughly excited about making this place our home for the next 2 months.

More pics coming soon :)

First days in Rwanda..

It is so good to finally be in Africa..after so much planning and then travelling for nearly 42 hours on 5 diffrent flights. The landscape flying over Africa on route from Dubai was unlike anything I had seen before, nothing but flat golden sand for thousands of miles that had rake like patterns spaced evenly apart, the sand later changed to a dusky pink, followed by a dark terracotta color and then a marble like pattern of many sand colours. It was almost incomprehendable to see so much land with absoulutly nothing else but sand.
Standing at the luggage carrousel in Nairobi I started to feel slightly worried when my bag hadnt come through and even more so when the only bag that was left was identical to mine but not mine. I resigned to the fact the my bag wouldnt be accompanying me to Rwanda but hopeful that I would see my bag again. I headed over to terminal 2 to catch my next flight only to find that the check in had closed and there was no way they would make an exception. It all worked out ok and I was able to get a ticket for a flight to Kigali at midnight which was flying via Burandi. The passenger who had taken my bag back to his hotel later returned to the airport to swap it for his one and I was reunitied with my bag while waiting for my next flight. At last I was in Rwanda, incredably tired but so happy to finally be here and to see Cait again. We stayed up talking until 3am.
Our first day yesterday was great. We met Claire, the volunteer coordinator from Faith Victory Association (FVA), this morning and visited the FVA offices, a short walk from where we are staying. Claire is lovely and so friendly. While we were at the offices there was a young local teenage girl trying to enrol in the school run by FVA. Claire explained that this girl had lost both of her parents and had no where to live and while FVA were doing everything they could to help make attending school possible that there simply isnt enough money for FVA to fund all children who come to them asking to be able to attend school. Cait and I both looked at each other, knowing that we were both thinking the same thing...what would cost us so relatively little could make such a significant differance in this one girls' life and future. It is so much more confronting and real seeing these people and stories in real life, it is not possible to change the tv channel or to continue on with the day quickly forgetting the story you have just heard. This would be the first story in my time in Africa that my heart would break over.
This afternoon we headed into Kigali city, about a 10 minute journey from the guest house on a local van sized bus, with Claire and around 12 other locals. I sat next to a little girl called Arfia, who sat looking at me with these big beautiful eyes and huge smile. She sat staring at me facintaed for the entire journey. She whispered to her Mum who then let me know that Arfia was so happy to see me. While we were in greeted by many people as we walked around town with Claire, with many of them thanking us for coming to their country. Claire left us in town to buy some supplies and gave us instructions on how to get home and assured us that the many "motos", which could be identified by the green vests worn by the drivers, were not only the best way to get back home but also safe. I was hoping she was right as I climbed on the back of a bike and we weaved in and out of traffic, half petrified and half exhilrated. I was relieved to see Cait waiting at the agreed destination as we had lost sight of each other while on the bikes. Day 1 in Africa has now come to a close and I am looking foward to the adventures and experiences that the 178 days ahead of us will bring.

Axx

5 days to go...

So I wanted to write a little reflection, before Amy and I left for Africa. How did we get ourselves into such an adventure? Why Africa? And why volunteering?

Ever since my college days of Sociology classes like Social Movements, Sociology of Gender, and Women's Studies, I've been interested in the developing world. After learning about the genocide in Rwanda, genital mutilation in some Muslim cultures in Eastern Africa, and countless villages and families that have little or no access to health care or education...I had made my mind up to volunteer. Unfortunately my college budget was exhausted, so I was unable to finance the volunteer work when I finished school.

Fast forward 3 years, and my friend Amy and I are sitting in New Zealand on a Wednesday night watching Grey's Anatomy at her house. After a couple glasses of wine, and a commercial about Africa; the discussion began. We realized that it had been a dream of both of ours to travel to Africa to volunteer, even more specifically to work in the fields of women's rights, health, and education.

After Amy discovered Global Volunteer Network online, we set about deciding on a specific country to travel, and which projects appealed to us. We even printed out "Are You Cut Out For Volunteering" worksheets and asked ourselves all the tough questions. This even involved looking ourselves in the face (using a hand-held mirror) while asking questions like "what are the worst possible conditions you could live in?" So after discussing all the questions, some embarrassing, some soul-searching we decided to commit. So here we are (a year and a half later)...5 days to fly out, and I couldn't be more happy about the semi-impulsive decision that we made that night.