Three More Days

Hi Family and friends!
So I am leaving in about three days. Until then I have four finals to finish and it's so hard to have my mind occupy my responsibilities. ugh. Anyhow I leave early... 7:00 Thursday morning. My papa is going to drop me off for my TWENTY-EIGHT hour flight. Mostly just wanted to write and tell you all that I am SOOO excited to go on this adventure. Probably never moreso than this very moment! Anyhow I'll probably write again the night before I leave but just wanted to tell anyone that was wondering if I really am going... because I am! It's real and I'm leaving in three days!! peace out.

Great NEWS!!

So i didn't end up in Tanzania in January... obviously. Which is really such a blessing because I was able to go to school this semester and have really enjoyed the opportunities that I've been given. Anyhow, my swim coach Wade was planning on going to Cambodia in May, so I was planning on using my funds to go to Cambodia with him... well not enough people signed up for his group to go. I was so sad about that. But now I am going to go to Tanzania from April 30- June 9 which is so wonderful! Thank you all so much for your donations! I raised enough money in contributions to pay for nearly all of my airfare (which is 1,500 dollars.) I just bought my airfare about an hour ago and got an acceptance e-mail from the orphanage I am going to be volunteering at! It's called the Faraja Orphanage Centre and is in a village just outside of Arusha, near Mt. Kilimanjaro :) I can't tell you how excited I am! I'm going to post a picture of some kids at the orphanage I will be at, but just think in less than 2 months I'll be showing you pictures of my own!

A KILO amount of money

Hoorah! Just FYIing-I reached the thousand dollar mark yesterday! I just needed to share that with anyone who may read this! Now I'm off to hit the books again... two more finals! PS Thank you all SOOO much for the donations and/or the love notes! You all rock!

Wow!

So far, from the letters that I have sent out I have received $693.75 in donations. I have had donations from $1.75 to 100 DOLLARS!! I can't believe how generous my friends and family are! It looks at this point in time that I might only be able to go for a month or so, which would be fine! If that were the case though, I would like to go in March, because then I could still go to school in the Spring. I have checked with my professors and told them that I would be missing about 4 weeks of school (being in Africa for 5, but one of those weeks being spring break...) and all of them that I have heard back from have given me the go ahead and said that I could definitely do work ahead of time, fortunately I have a job that is pretty flexible and would allow me to do that. If I am able to go to school for spring semester, I will graduate with my BA in December! I would be 21! So I may be going to Africa for the month of March! Woot Woot! Thank you family, friends and neighbors for your support!!! I love you all so much!

PS Alyson, if you ever read this, I am NOT using the money to go on a vacation to Hawaii :)

One Step Closer...

On Friday I got a heavy sum of donations. I received $364 in checks from friends and family. I was really surprised at the outpouring of support from those people that are close to me. You know who you are and I am so grateful for your help in my cause! :) The generosity of people, even in the poor economic times in which we live is so overwhelming. So many others have given me encouragement through words which means just as much to me, we can't all afford to support through funds, so I am grateful to all of my friends and family (family turned friends, and friends turned family) So thank you friends, this just puts me one step closer to achieving my goals... Asante Sana! Ninakupenda!

Great news! So I sent out my letters hoping to get sponsors to send me to Africa on Tuesday! That's a big step, one that's so scary and exciting! The really great news is that due to the drop in oil, airfare costs are going down. I just checked flights for the time period that I want to go and it dropped from $2200- $2044! Boo ya! Every little bit helps!
Also in May I am going to Cambodia for two weeks to work in a Children's Hospital. I go to a meeting about it this Saturday and will post more information about it when I find out more. But that seems like a really exciting opportunity and I won't be gone for nearly as long as I would be to Africa, so that's exciting!
Right now I need to go work on my book review for the paper, the book that I am reading this time is called Ida B. and I love it! (Almost as much as I love Elephants!)

New Branch in Arusha :)

So I have been in contact with some missionaries in Dar es Salaam which is where I would go to church when I was going to be living in Bagamoyo (The middle coastal region of Tanzania) but now I am going to be living in Arusha (which is in the north near Mt. Kilimanjaro.) I have been corresponding with Ireta Jensen (a senior missionary in Dar es Salaam) and she informed me that only FOUR months ago they opened that area to missionaries and opened up a branch in Arusha.
They have four elders serving in that area (odds seem pretty good eh?) and i looked up a report on the church expanding here and it is really exciting! They had only twenty members meet on the first day but the mission president is confident that it will expand quickly because the region is predominantly Christian as opposed to Dar es Salaam which is Muslim. This makes for the fifth branch in Tanzania and brings Tanzania to a standing membership of 800. This is really exciting to me and I can't wait to participate in the work over there... geeze I sound like I'm going on a mission. :) But hey who knows, maybe they will be able to make Tanzania more than just a zone in the Kenya, Nairobi mission and it can become its own mission! That would be awesome!

This is the map of Africa and the location of the stakes and districts over there (Prior to three of them) Yellow means Stake; Green means Branch

Moving from Bagomoyo to Arusha

So I am a writer for the Utah Statesman, which is the campus newspaper. I had the opportunity to write a story on different volunteer organizations abroad and came across one that I am very impressed with. So I am going to go to Tanzania through this program. The name of the Organization is International Volunteer HQ. The difference with this program is that I will be stationed in Arusha Tanzania which is about 400 Miles north of Bagomoyo, where I was going to be previously.
Arusha is at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro and is the gateway to the Serengheti desert. This is really cool because the time of year that I will be there (January - March) the Wildebeests migrate to Kenya from Tanzania and so there are a lot of lions that can be seen.

Anyhow I thought that was cool.
I am still considering going to Thailand, I just haven't researched it enough yet. The truth is that so many people in so many places need help.
I attached some pictures of Arusha, the area I will (hypothetically for now)
be serving in. :)

Gratitude

I haven't written on the blog for a while so i just thought I would update on what's happening. For the past while I've been reflecting on how blessed I am to have so many opportunities lying in front of me. Since I've started to look at my life from a more grateful perspective, I have found many opportunities and directions that are enticing to me. Working in Africa with AIDS has been one of these opportunities that I am extremely grateful for. I am grateful for the experience that I will have to go. It's been a challenge trying to decide if that's a proper choice for me, and I'm still deciding, but I do know that I have enjoyed becoming more educated on global issues that people everywhere face.
Since I have been learning a lot about some of the trials that people in this world face I find that I am so grateful to be an American Citizen. I don't really think of myself as extremely patriotic, and perhaps that's because I associate patriotism with considering oneself better than another based on country of origin and I don't like that idea, the attitude of looking down on others for any reason. Luckily, for me, that's not what patriotism entails so I wanted to take the chance to express that I am grateful to live in such a beautiful land filled with any need I ever have and unceasing opportunity. This country gives me the chance to worship how I wish, which is such a blessing that many other people miss out on. The hand of the Lord is very evident in my life and I see it in the lives of others as well, without The Church I may not be able to feel that way or recognize it if I did. Lastly I am grateful for the people that are in my life. For my family who support me in making decisions, my roommates and friends who help me to discover the good things in life and for great teachers who instill in me curiosity. I have much to be grateful for and I hope that I recognize it more often in my life.

Awareness

Since I'm going to be working with AIDS in Africa I thought that these statistics might help you to understand some of my motivation for participating in the fight against AIDS in Tanzania.
-42 Million people are living with AIDS -74% of which live in Sub-Saharan Africa
-14,000 new cases of AIDS are diagnosed EVERY day. 95% of these in developing countries
-There are 14 million AIDS orphans and an estimated 25 million by the year 2010
-Sub Saharan Africa carries the burden of having 65% of the AIDS cases in the world
-AIDS is becoming a disease of young women, with the largest population affected being women between the ages of 15-30.

"Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness." -James Thurber

* Statistics from until.org and unaids.org