Africa here I come!!!! The following is an e-mail from one of my classmates spearheading this adventure for summer of 2007:

First I gotta apologize to those of you who I have not discussed this with because this may sound totally out of the blue, but last summer I took a trip to Zambia, Africa and had an amazing time staying at an orphanage and visitng the local hospitals.

As a result, I thought it would a great place for us nursing students to visit!!! I have been discussing taking nursing students to Africa with the faculty at the school, but honestly, and yes this may come as a surprise, trying to organize anything with the school is absolutely painstaking (hmmm, big shock, right? hehehe)

HOWEVER, I talked to the lady who owns the orphanage (she visits africa every six weeks) and booked Africa for us a slot (two weeks) for an Africa Trip in June 2007, just after our third year. What usually happens is "teams" go down to africa and have a plan to, for example, build buildings, hand out care packages, or teach the children, etc., we can pretty much come up with a schedule of what we want to do. Nursing students from school in Ontario have gone, and we can look at what they did if we want to do the same thing.

I know this must sounds like a lot to take in but the organization does this soo often everything really does go smoothly. The organization has a few other orphanges (which take care of HIV + orphanes) around the world, and what they do in Africa is they is house "teams" in a guest house right next to the orphange which is all located on a 1 acre piece of property. We have our own cook (and western food), laundry lady, and bathroom/shower. Zambia (the country we go to in africa) is also a politically stable and safe country, so there's none of those crazy stories you hear on TV. The whole trip which includes airfaire, all meals, housing, transportation, and costs about $3000.00. The 3,000.00 is also considered a "charitable donation" so it is tax deductable.

I am just trying to get a rough idea of who is interested, and don't feel pressured to commit ASAP, if you have any questions please call or email me any questions/concerns you have. there's also a website www.seedsofhopecm.com that you can go on to check out the organization. It is run by a church, but is not at all "preachy," but if you want to make to incorporate your faith they are perfectly willing to accomodate, they're really sensitive and want to make everyone feel comfortable. Also Susan (the woman who owns/runs the orphanages) is in Africa right now and will be back in 2-3 weeks and we were planning on having an orientation meeting for all of us, so everyone can get some more info. on the trip.

Please please email me any questions, I hope this all doesn't sound too looney, its a far away place but really the whole thing is so professionally done there's no worries.

Allright, i'm done I promise,
Talk to you soon,
Ashlee