First, let me apologize for being slack in posting stories and lessons from my first Africa trip. That’s right, I just used the word “first”, because there is already a second trip in the works! Let me tell you about how this has come about:
Ever since my first few days at Tumaini Children’s Home in Tanzania, I knew I wanted to return. Before I even left the continent I started praying about returning within the year. With this request ever-present in my mind, I started graduate school just 5 days after landing back on American soil. With the start of school I learned about one of the degree requirements, a graduate project or a research project. On the explanation for the graduate project, in small print, at the bottom of the page, were the words that I had been waiting to hear: “If a student has ideas for a foreign project talk to Jil”. This, my friends, is what I had been scheming and hoping for. Within days I applied for a project and told Jil, my grad project supervisor, about my desire to take my new-found knowledge of occupational therapy back to Tanzania. Since that first conversation she has been so excited for me, as well as inspiring with new ideas. My graduate project will result in an informational book (short book) about how to prepare for and plan a short term international trip to take occupational therapy to an underserved population. That means our plans for this project are for it to go far beyond just me, or the community in Tanzania where I will serve, but ultimately across the world by helping other health professionals get out there and take action.
Progress: I have already purchased one of my flights, roundtrip between my hometown and Kenya. This flight cost a few dollars short of $2,000. This is only a little more than the flights I bought for last summer’s trip so that is an answer to prayer. This flight also includes another fun layover = bonus blessing from my Father! Also, God has allowed me, with the help of my amazing family and the generosity of many, to raise about $800 already! That means I’ve almost reached 1/3 of the trip cost. The goal is to raise much more than that though, in order to give a gift to Beth (the orphanage director) and Tumaini.
As I mentioned, much of this progress has happened as the result of the generosity of others, and some work on my part. If you’d like to get involved as well, I’ll be having a craft sale at my home this coming Monday, here is a link to the information about that:OT to TZ
I’ll also be installing a Paypal feature here on my blog. And most importantly, please pray for me! There’s so many details and elements that have to come together. I’ll write another post about some of those. Thanks for listening!
Curios of the Curious 