6 more days left untill the return home

Hi all.
Well I said that I would try and write while travelling around, so here I am with an update on how things are going.
Seraina and I are having an absolute blast. We had a great time in Kenya at the Masai Mara doing a camping safari (lions and hyenas making noises all night). We saw tons of animals. Big herds of elephants and giraffes up close, as well lions eating a catch they made the night before. It was amazing. After Kenya we moved on to Tanzania and did some hiking in the mountains for a couple of days and now we are in what I can truly call Paradise, aka Zanzibar. White sand beaches for miles and miles and turquoise water, It's heaven here. It is definitely a place to have on you list of things to see. Stone town is also quite amazing. Tons of little ally ways in between buildings and cute little shops, but very easy to lose your direction. The architecture here is also something quite spectacular. If you like looking at old buildings with lots of history than Stone town is the place for you.
Anyways we are headed off to the beach!
I'll write again when I get home to let you all know how the adjustment to western life is going.
Bye for Now.
Shawna

See you later!!!

Wow, I cannot beleive that are time is up, I have had a wonderful time here in Masaka and cannot wait to return! Tsion and I left yesturday morning and I must say that it was much harder then I would have ever expected, I spent most of the day in tears. I have met some really trully wonderful people along the way and will miss them dearly. This has been an amazing experience and as I mentioned all I can do is think about returning.

I am leaving tommorow morning and going straight to Vancouver, I am feeling a little nervous since I am really not sure how I will feel, electricity, hot water, no boda boda's; I don't know but I guess I will soon find out.

At this time I really don't have much to say, I am feeling very tired and sad, however once I am home I will share with all of you my experience returning back to Canada.

Most importantly I would like to thank everyone who has supported us including John, Nancy, Bob and Lawrence, Karen and Dan we could have never done it without you all!!!

I hope everyone is well.

See you later Uganda!!!

It's Going to be Hard to Say Goodbye

Well we are on our last few days of work and it's going to be hard to say goodbye. Today I did a workshop with the Uganda Schizophrenia Fellowship and it went really well. The group has never sat down all together and had a discussion about what their experiences with Mental Illness have been. They were supposed to have a general meeting after the workshop but they were all enjoying chatting with each other so much there was not enough time. I also did a talk on coping techniques and how to support someone with a mental illness. I believed they enjoyed it lots as Thomas told me they were thankful for the workshop and they hope to do more like that in the future. At the end two women sang me a goodbye song and I started to cry. It's like saying goodbye to my family all over again. This experience has been truly amazing and will be with me for the rest of my life. It has also shaped me into what I believe will be a better worker when I get home. I have learned so much about myself as a human being and as a Social Worker. Thanks to all the supervisors here in Uganda ( Thomas and John) and to the supervisors back home (Bob, Nancy, Lawrence, and John) for making this experience possible. Doing practicums internationally is an invaluable experience and if anyone ever has the opportunity to do it, do not pass it up.
Time in Africa is not over yet, I still have a few weeks to travel around, which I'm looking forward to. I will try to keep writing but if not Thank you for following along with us on our journey to Uganda. All the comments of support have been greatly appreciated and have inspired me along the way.
Once again thank you to all the people who have been so supportive of this project and have contributed time, energy and funds to make this happen. Without your support some of us may not have had this opportunity.
All the best
Shawna

Will Miss Uganda

This has been one of the greatest trips of my life. It's sad to say good bye, but I know I will be back soon. I think of this as a second home and I have made a second family with the great people I live with. I would like to thank Douglas College, The Uganda Project, the teachers and John Fox for giving me the greatest educational experience a student could get at a college level. I have had the chance of putting all the skill I have learned from the two year Community Social Service program to practice in beautiful Masaka Uganda. The support and communication I have had from the teachers and last year students that came to Uganda has been amazing. all the people have helped in some way to help me learn more about what it takes to be a good CSSW.

The practicums have been great and I would be lucky to work at both TASO and the school. I have never felt so much love in my life form a work place. Just as I feel at home at my practicums I have to go home. If I didn't need to work for money, i would continue to work at both organizations. I would like to say thank you to Martha my supervisor at TASO and John my supervisor at the school for all their support. I believe there is a lot we can Learn from social workers in Masaka and that's why I think this project is great for the students education. I will never forget my time with all the workers at the organization and I have the great amount of respect for the work they do with no money.

I would like to say thank you to everyone that has read the blogs and have supported us students through out are time in Uganda. This is only the second year and the students that are going next year will also be needing are support. I know this project will only get better with time because Douglas College and CSSW program are putting a great deal of work in making this project one that will be able to run for years to come. The Uganda Project will be fundraising starting Sept. If anyone is interested in coming to the events, please ask. The project will also be putting on a run called run to Uganda. This will be the second time it will be put on and it is a great event. once again the three students and I would like to thank everyone for their support. we could not have done this without all the people that helped.

To the next year students get ready for a life changing experience and I wish you luck. As for me, I'm on my way to Ethiopia. Ya!

With love,
Tsion Tekie

Home run...

Unfortunately we are already approaching the home stretch, although I am not ready to go home yet... Luckily I will still have 3 more weeks to travel after my practicums are through.

It hit me the first time this week that I will soon have to say good-bye to all the wonderful people I met at work, as well as during my travels. As expected, I am going to be quite sad to go. Remember how I said at the beginning: "beginnings are always difficult", well, saying good-bye can be even harder... However, I am slowly preparing myself and others for my departure, and I think that way I will manage to get a handle on things.

This week at the vocational centre I had a dentist come in to speak about dental hygene, as this was much needed. Sadly, even though they may be willing to take good care of their teeth, some of them don't have enough money to buy toothpaste... However, by demonstrating to them how to properly use a toothbrush, and removing some of the myths (for e.g. that cavities are bugs that eat their way into their teeth), they will hopefully be able to prevent damage to their teeth and other related problems. Apparently, this was the first time since years that someone came in to give education about dental hygene, so the matron was very pleased. I advised her to arrange the same dentist, who works in a clinic on the hospital grounds, to come in once a year when new students have started their programs. It sounded like he agreed to doing so, and I hope it works out..

At Uganda Cares I am still doing pre- and post-result counselling, and this week I also spoke with a couple, which was a first. They advise people to follow the "a, b, c model", which stands for abstain if single, be faithful when in a relationship, or otherwise use a condom...as you can imagine, it's not that simple. However, a lot of clients or young Ugandans I have met, do claim they abstain until marriage, as did the couple I counselled. They came in to get tested prior to getting married, and fortunately they tested negative. To be safe, I advised them to get re-tested within 3 months, as they could have contracted HIV during the window period. It is still not easy giving someone their positive results, and unless I become a doctor in Canada, this is probably something I won't be doing again back home. So, in a sense it is a priviledge, whereby I have learned how to be straight forward with information, while at the same time assessing how they may react and being prepared for their reaction.

Alright, you'll here from me once more next week!

Bye for now,

Seraina

We Made It!!!

Hey all
Just decided to drop you a quick note to tell you that the Nile was nice to us. Rafting was soooo much fun and would recommend it if anyone is coming to Uganda in the next three years. I say in the next three years because they are damming a part of the run so if won't be the same after that. The rapids were huge and we flipped the boat twice, which I have to say is good because most of the other boats flipped 4-5 times. We have a few bruises but they were all worth it. The not so smart idea was to go horseback riding the next day!!! Although it was a tone of fun it definitely made us 10x's more sore than just rafting alone would have. But all is good and Seraina and I had an excellent weekend.
In regards to work, it's been a little slow because one of my supervisors has been out of town for the last little while. We usually go on outreach which we have not been able to do since last week so its been quiet. Like Tsion mentioned before we are going to be teaching the teachers at Kitengessa how to use computers this week. This should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.
Anyways bye for now.
Shawna

only two more weeks

time is going fast and my stay in Uganda is almost over. I'm going to be sad when i have to say good bye to all the wonderful people i have become friends with. having the chance to do the last part of my schooling in Uganda is something that i will never forget. i have learned a great deal from my practicums and feel that i am learning skills that i can use when i start working in he field.

TASO
TASO has been a great place to work because the people are so nice and willing to help me in my learning. i went to the taso monthly meeting that took place on Friday for 6 hours. the meeting is long because they have to talk about all departments in taso and how they can make it better. it was another opportunity for me to see how they improve the service for HIV/AIDS clients at TASO. the also ask clients to write down how well they think TASO services are to see what areas are good and what areas need work.

most of the week i spend doing field work. i go with one other social worker and visit clients. i feel i learn the most when I'm doing outreach because it is hands on work. i have a chance to build relationships with the clients. this week i went to the field three days. every day week drive for about one hour on a bike. a lot of the people are very sick because they live aways from the centre and are not able to get treatment they need. the only time the clients see a doctor is when TASO comes to their village. i wish i could share some of the counselling stories with you but it is confidential. i enjoy go to the clients house because i get a better understanding of their situation and what is need to work with the client. over all taso has been great.

school
the school is very slow and for the most part i am teaching computer class. this week i will be teaching the teachers how to use computers because they have never used them. maegan and i are also working with the three girls Douglas has sponsored. they are going to start a support group. the support group will be once a week on a sat for one hour. we are working with them to teach some counselling skill so the are able to understand the meaning of a support group. the three girls want to be social workers when they are done school and we know it will be good for their learning. we will also be keeping in contact with the girls once in Canada.

tsion

Experiences

Hello everyone, I realize that it has been a while, however I have been sick for the past week therefore could not make it to the internet cafe. For the past 2 1/2 weeks I have been working with an abandoned infant at the hospital, probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do! As one can imagine I become a little attached to the child since I was really all it had. In saying this once we arrived at the home I new that he would have a great future to look forward to and would be well taken care of in the mean time.

This process consisted of very little paper work and once that was finalized I was able to bring him to a "babies home" in Jinja which is about a 5 hr drive from Masaka. To my surprise the babies home was very nice and the children seemed happy and content. The home currently holds 61 children aged 2 weeks - 4 years. One of the workers shared that approximately %98 of the children are adopted and often from Ugandan famillies which was very comforting to hear.

On a different note, Tsion and I went on Safari which was incredible, we seen many elephants, bulls, hyennas, bors, lions and more. It was absolutely fantastic, apart from being sick and having to run to a washroom every 20 min. but that is just the way it goes.

Other then that I have been concentrating on my health and getting better for the remainning 2 weeks. I hope everyone is well and I look forward in seeing you all soon!

Maegan

Another Update

Last week I managed to get three former students from the vocational centre, who suffer epilepsy, to come in and speak about their experience. I believe it was very beneficial for the students, as they believed epilepsy is contagious. I am hopeful that most, if not all, were convinced by the end of the presentation that it was not... Most of all, I think the three students also provided great role models for them, by demonstrating how they can speak out about their disabilities and sensitize others. This week we also started an employment workshop at the centre, which will continue over the course of the next 3 weeks, once weekly. I will be co-facilitating this workshop together with another teacher from the centre, as well as the DRO (district rehabilitation officer), who is also physically disabled. So, this will be another great learning opportunity for me.

At Uganda Cares there are a lot of students who are eager to learn, and also helpful to work with. We have started doing parts of the pre-result counselling workshop, and will probably be on our own soon. Unfortunately, they are at an advantage because of the language, so I am not sure how much I will be able to contribute... However, I am also working together with the nurses and they let me help out with for e.g. taking the childrens' measurments or weighing people at in-take.

As Shawna mentioned in her last blog, we are also making some room for fun and adventure, as our time in Uganda will be over before we know it... Source of the Nile river-rafting, here we come!

PS (Congrats to the CSSW class of 2007 for succussfully graduating & hope you had a good party!)

Until next time, safe journey!

Seraina

Just one more thing

HAPPY GRADUATION TO ALL OUR CLASSMATES. CONGRATULATIONS !!!!
THE BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF YOU IN YOUR FUTURE CAREERS AND I'M SURE WE WILL SEE EACH OTHER IN THE FIELD

Its been awhile

Hello all,
Its been a while since i last wrote. I've been really busy with work and am finding it hard to get to the Internet cafe for long enough that I can sit down and write in the blog. Anyways enough excuses from me. Work is going very well and i am really enjoying it. This past weekend Seraina and I went to Jinja for a picnic with Thomas and the jinja branch of the schizophrenia fellowship. We had a lot of fun. Good food and good company. We stayed the night in jinja and woke up the next day to a lot of rain. Oh i forgot to mention that we were camping. Yep that's right in a tent with no blankets. Luckily the tent was water proof. So sun when we woke up and saw how much it was raining we decided to go ATVing and have some fun in the rain. It was a blast and we got to see alot of the area around Bujigalli falls.
This past mon I got to see some clients that i have been doing some counselling with. I have not seen them for a few weeks and the first time we met they were not doing to well. But when i saw them this past mon they are showing signs of improvement which is very nice to see. Its nice to see a client smile and laugh when, the time you saw them before, there was only sadness. I have also set up a workshop that i am going to facilitate at the monthly schizophrenia member meeting. I am going to be talking about coping mechanisms and how to care for someone who is mentally ill. Things like thought stopping and grounding techniques for those who are living with a mental illness and how to handle someone who is being aggressive ect. for the caregivers will be discussed. So wish me luck. There is expected to be about 60-70 ppl there so i am a little nervous.
I have also stated doing some teaching at Kitengessa Secondary School which is also a lot of fun. The kids are so willing to learn and so open that it makes my job very easy. I am hoping to start a peer support group after school with the hopes that it will continue after i leave but I don't have much time left since starting at the school so late in the practicums, so we'll see.
This up coming weekend Seraina and I are planning to go back up to Jinja and Bujigalli falls to do some white water rafting on the Nile. Grade five rapids and some of the best rafting in the world so once again wish us luck and hope the the Nile is nice to us.
Anyways Bye for Now
Shawna

Progress Report...

Hello everyone!

As I mentioned last time, I was planning an HIV/AIDS workshop at the vocational centre for disabled children, which is funded by USDC (Ugandan Society for Disabled Children) and I wanted to let you know how that went...

This was the first "sex-talk" I ever did in front of a class of 45 students, so I was a little nervous. However, as I got going, things went much better than I anticipated and they absolutely loved it. We had a good two hour discussion with the Q&A session at the end, and I believe it was a huge success. Even though they claim to know the basics, there were many things they weren't sure about, and the three bananas I handed out to practice putting condoms on, really put them to the test... It was great fun, and about half of the class even came up to shake my hand at the end, that's how thankful they were. This made me realise how much fun my work is, though certainly it won't always be this easy to reach out and educate people. Today I have planned a presentation on epilepsy, which is believed to be contagious here in Uganda. Therefore, my main goal will be to teach them the opposite, and I'm curious as to how well that will go...?

At my other placement at Uganda Cares a lot of social work students from different universities in Uganda have started their practicums also, so this will have pros and cons for me. A pro is that we can work together doing pre-and post-result counselling, whereby they can translate for me. However, I can also foresee competition for work, and I hope there will be enough tasks to go around... One thing's for sure, there is no shortage in clients, so surely there will always be someone to counsel and support. Their counselling style here is very different though, and feelings are rarely talked about... Despite this not being customary, I still make a point of inquiring, and have been getting good results that way.

Alright then, I will keep you posted!

Seraina

hello,

well, we have less then a month in Uganda and time I going fast. I have learned a great deal of information from my practicums. My weeks are very full, I spend two days at Kitenguisa Senior Secondary ( wed & Fri) from 7:30 am-5:45pm and three days at TASO (Mon,Tues,Thur) from 8:30am-4pm. I will tell you a little about each practicum and what I do.

My first practicum is at the school working with high school kids. The school is very small and has little money for books and other things that a school needs. They don't have music our art class because the school has no money. Each class has about 30-60 children and some times there is not enough teacher for all the classes. I see children teaching each other in class because they don't have a teacher. some students have a hard time paying school fees so they are not able to go to school. Other students cant go to school because they have to stay at home and work or they have children. The children that are able to attend school are very grateful. Children study from morning till night. For the most part children know how important education is for their future.

I do many diffrent things at the school. One of the things I do with the students is teach computer.Douglas College has given the school and library a computer each. Most of the students have never used a computer before so this was a great learning opportunity for the students. I had to explain everything from how to turn on a computer. The students are happy to learn all about computers. I also help the English teachers with some classes. In the weeks to come I will be talking to the class about topics such as HIV/AIDS, sex, stigma and anything else I feel will be helpful. I also will be working with the three girls Douglas College has sponsored to come up with a peer support group that will be runned by the girls once well go back to Canada. The school is a great learning experience for me.

My second practicum is at TASO. TASO is an HIV/AIDS organization that has been open since 1987. It was started by individuals living with HIV. They felt there was not enough support for individuals in Uganda living with HIV/AIDS. It started of as just a support group. As it developed more they new it was important to help them treat the illness. TASO has two parts to the org the medical and the counselling.
The medical area has doctors, nurses, pharmacy, testing and much more. the counselling deportment has individual counselling, group counselling, children's counselling to name a few. TASO also has outreach put in place to reach the clients to sick to come to the center.

I have had the opportunity to work in all areas of the TASO org. I have been counselling clients and educating them. I go on outreach two times a week. A social worker and I go and visit clients at the house. we go and give meds, do testing of family members, educate community and do anything else we can. This has been a great learning experience to better understand the challenges one faces when living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. I have so much more to say but i will save it for another day.

Tsion

The Social Work Conference

We are back from the 7th Pan African Social Work Conference, which was hosted in Kampala - lucky for us! It was such a priviledge to be amongst so many inspiring professionals from all over the world, whereby almost half of the attendees were from Uganda or other African countries.


The days were long and tiresome, as the various workshops and presentations were often running late; though by now we should have come to accept that nothing in Africa is ever on schedule. Also, due to conflicts in different parts of Africa, it took a few people up 2 - 3 days to arrive, which made it very real and helped put things into perspective. One day which was particularily interesting, was on the theme of international justice and we learned all about the international criminal court (ICC) and the work they are doing in Rwanda and the Sudan for instance. To cut is short, it was at times very intense, but also motivating to see how many social workers still love their profession after many years of practice. Moreover, it was an excellent opportunity to network with other people from around the world. Among others, I made an interesting contact in Kampala, through whom I will hopefully be able to arrange a drumming performance at the disabled school I work at. A group of youth do HIV/AIDS awareness raising through drumming, and surely this would be a highlight for the children at the centre.

On another note, it was also a nice change to be in the big city after living in the village, with minimal entertainment and lacking facilities, so you can imagine we made the most of it!

Now I must run, as I have a HIV/AIDS presentation/work shop of my own prepared for the school. Wish me luck and talk to you again soon!

Time fly's!!!

Well, we have been here for almost a full month, I can't beleive it! I have been working in the hospital for the past two weeks and absolutely love it. In saying this, the first few days were fairly tuff, the lack of funding is very apparent. Iv's hang from rusty nails in the wall, patients are given very little to eat and if lucky some water. If there are no beds available, one must bring a mat to lay on and that is just the way it goes. Children are often struggling with malnutrition and mothers are trying to stay as strong as possible in order to support them on a daily basis. I often feel as though I am not able to provide these individuals with as much as I would like both emotionaly and financially; however I realize that by me being I am learning and educating myself about this part of the world, in which I will bring back to Canada and share with many others which I hope will make a difference in some way or another.

I must say that there is a great sense of support, I have never seen anything like it. When one mother needs to clean her sick child's clothing and leave for a while the others will make sure the child is safe and secure. It really amazes me! For instance I was working on this particular case where the baby had been abandoned for 6 days and the neighbouring mother took great care of the child during this time.

On a different note, Uganda itself is absolutely beautiful, the landscape is astonishing, so many greens. The people are fabulous and very welcoming, I have never felt so accepted and comfortable in my life. Well I must go for now, I hope everyone is doing well and I will post again in the near future.

HEY ALL

Well we are coming up to a month of being in Uganda and starting to get into the swing of things with our practicums. I'm with the Uganda Schizophrenia Fellowship and at the Masaka Hospital during some social work. I've been on two outreaches now with USF which have been a blast. I am getting to see a lot of the surrounding villages on the back of a dirt bike. Today on outreach the roads were quite muddy so the bike didn't want to go up some of the hills (which i have to say are quite large) and so there I was slipping and sliding while trying to get up the hill and Thomas (my supervisor) was walking the bike. It truly was a lot of fun but very messy. The people on the side of the road watching the mazungu(white person) falling all over the place were getting a kick out of it. Im sure it was a funny site. My runners are for sure being left behind. The clients that I am meeting are great to. They are very inspiring with all the income generating projects they have going.
The hospital is also a good but challenging experience. Its definitely tough work though, in the sense that it feels like I cannot do much and there are a lot of truly heartbreaking stories. But all the experiences here so far are going to be ones that are with me forever and will benefit the work that I do back home.
On Monday we attend the week long Social Work conference in Kampala which I am looking forward to. One of the other girls or I will update you on what is happening with that next week.
So bye for now
Shawna

One week into our practicums

Beginnings are always difficult, and so was my first week into my practicum placements. There was no time to be shy and I had to get right in there...

Monday was my first day at Uganda Cares, the Aids clinic. It went quite well and I was able to do one-on-one counselling with a few clients who speak english. Language is the greatest barrier, so I need to be assertive and continue trying to find clients with whom I can communicate or alternatively I will need to learn Lugandan...! It was testing day and out of 60 patients, approx. 30 tested HIV positive; so the situation is still very severe. Though it was a bit much for my first day, I was assigned to do post-result counselling and had to tell two people that they tested positive. Most likely I will be doing this frequently, due to the volume of people. Then on Friday was children's day and I had so much fun with the kids. They just love the muzungos (white people) and are so appreciative; how much joy a colouring book can bring!

The remaining three days I was with USDC (Ugandan Society for Disabled Children), which is completely different from Uganda Cares. Most of my time will be spent at the vocational centre for disabled youth aged between 14 and 25 yrs, where I plan on teaching some basic english and establishing a regular workshop on various social issues, such as HIV/AIDS. On Wednesday I was out in the villages doing home visits all day. It was very interesting and the countryside is absolutely gorgeous, but it was also extremely challenging (both emotionally and financially). All of the families we visited are living in extreme poverty, so it is hard to know how to respond, since the unspoken request is clearly for funds. However, I am trying hard not to be taken advantage of, and at the same time I'm looking for other ways to be helpful.

Despite all of the hardships the people are dealing with, they have a very positive outlook on life and rarely complain. Moreover, everyone is very open and willing to share. Needless to say, I am learning plenty and will have a lot of experiences to take from when I get back to Canada.

Well we've been here for a week now and we are starting to get into the swing of things. Uganda definitely has it's own timetable that us Canadians are not used to. I kind of like it though. It is reminding me to slow down and take time to enjoy all that is around me. We went for a walk around Kitengessa (i believe that's how you spell it?) yesterday and it was beautiful. The people are so amazing and friendly. We are getting to use some Lugandan and when we speak the language the people get very excited and are so eager to teach us more. We are all very excited to start working, it will show us yet another side of this amazing country.
Wabale nnyo (thank you very much) for following along with us through this journey.
Bye for now!
Shawna

Hello Africa!!!

Well, the first few days have been very exciting and we all have a lot of adjusting to do. We love it here, though it can be somewhat mind-boggling, as things are just so exotic and different in Africa than in any other continent. The chaos here is one of things that magically draws me to this place; I just can't have that at home, so it becomes something like a treat! A simple transaction like opening a bank account for e.g. can easily take three hours, so there are many ways here to fill your days (not that it ever gets boring)! However, our patience and acceptance certainly gets tested in many ways. Some days the water is working, but the power is out, or the other way around...you just can't have it all - you don't need it either, so it's great!

Most of all, the people here have given us such a warm welcome, that indeed we may never want to leave....this seems to be a running joke as you are entering the country, and surely there is a lot of truth to it.

Yesterday was very eventful; we spent most of the day at the hospital and also met all of our supervisors. Most of our placements are spread around the hospital grounds, so we will certainly get a very good impression of all the challenges they are dealing with here and will meet tons of interesting people. We can barely wait to start our practicums next week!

Seraina

Stephen Lewis Night

I would have to say for myself that last night was one of the highlights of preparing for this trip to Uganda. Stephen Lewis was great!!! I can see why Times named him one of the worlds hundred most influential people. What an inspirational man.
A special thanks to the teachers for organizing this event, it turned out very well.
Shawna

About the Project

We are 4 college students going to Masaka, Uganda and we will be working with several organizations such as, the Masaka Referal Hospital, Uganda schizophrenia Fellowship and Uganda society for disabled children just to name a few. The purpose of our trip is to practice our skills that we have learned throughout the Community Social Service Worker Porgam at Douglas College. Furthermore, we would like to help empower these individuals and their communities by providing them with genuine care and support. We all feel very fortunate to be part of this wonderlful project and look forward to sharing our journey with all of you.
-Maegan

The first of many

Well I guess this will be the first of many postings over the next little while. We are 5 weeks out from our trip and we are busy busy preparing and wrapping up all the fundraising. Feelings of excitement and nervousness are in the air but I'm sure over the next few weeks the excitment will grow and the nervousness will decrese. Any way, welcome to the online journal of our trip and talk to you soon. Shawna