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.