Progress

Photo courtesy of Good Hope Facebook page

Months after signing on for a volunteer trip with Cross Cultural Solutions to Tanzania, and just a few days until I depart, I finally received my assignment. I'll be spending my days at the Good Hope Support Organization. They provide education, skills, knowledge, support, comfort, safety and love to children infected or affected with HIV/AIDS, orphans, people suffering from illness and the disadvantaged in order to help them create an empowering life of hope. I could be doing any one or more of the following duties:

• Support the group in their pursuit for healthy and sustainable livelihoods
• Engage in discussion and exchange ideas on issues such as family health, women’s rights, access to resources, income generation, etc.
• Collaborate and support the center on-going projects
• Teach conversational English and pronunciation
• Be a positive role model
• Advise their group by making/designing brochures, website, and business cards
• Share fundraising skills and participate in fundraising
• Teach kids (secondary school)
• Participate in outreach activities (Home visits to the sick)
• Participate in counseling

This is the work assignment I had hoped for. I have so much I want to know and learn, and so many people I want to meet. I loved these words on their website:

The lives of Good Hope co-founders mirror those they service. Therefore, they are able to walk within the community with empathy, outstretched arms and open hearts ready to embrace, lift up and support those who may need comfort, care and/or medical support.

My heart is already full to overflowing and this clinched it.

Compressed

I'm boggled by how much activity and the number of events that have been compressed into the past week or so: Hubby and I flirted with farm life, we took in a movie, celebrated my nephew's birthday, I travelled for work, squeezed in a root canal and dinner with the three amigos,  prepared for my Tanzanian trip, and we had an epic famjam to celebrate the birthdays of two of my daughters and my son-in-law.

And I would be lying if I didn't admit that I had moments of feeling completely overwhelmed and spent. But I've learned that in times such as these, you just have to push forward to get through it. And when you come out the other side, not only have you enjoyed each and every moment, you feel alive.

If you are spent from living, it means you have a full life to live. And really, what more can you ask. For that I am truly grateful.

PS With only a few days to go, countdown to Tanzania is on. I hear Africa Calling.