Preparing for our trip to Swaziland and South Africa isn’t taking all that much time or effort. All we really have had to do to prepare is get our shots (check), make some reservations (check), make sure our cats will be fed and watered (check), and, well, I cut off all my hair (I need to post a new picture). Packing will be pretty straight forward, so, what we really have been focusing on is…
When we asked our friends Scott and David, who we are visiting in Swaziland, if there is anything we can bring, without any hesitation they said children’s clothing and toothbrushes and toothpaste.
With the large number of orphaned children, and just general poverty, clothing is something children don’t always have. Many, if not all of us, take using our toothbrushes and toothpaste on a regular basis for granted. As you can imagine, that just simply isn’t the case for most living in a country where rural poverty exceeds 55% in all parts of the country.
Okay, so (my) David and I looked at each other and we pretty quickly agreed that I would take the dental items and he would take care of the children’s clothing. Being a 3rd Grade teacher and having access to both Lost and Found piles at school and the generosity of hundreds of parents, he can take that one. Having graduated from Creighton University in Omaha, NE., and the university having a great tradition of not only “the giving spirit” but also a very good dental school with alumni all over the country, I had a plan.
I first set a goal of how many toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste I wanted to collect. 500 sounds like a good number, don’t you think? I checked with Scott & David to make sure I wasn’t going too far in my efforts, but Scott said they see 25 patients a day, and we can possibly give them all out while we are there. GREAT!
Working with Creighton’s alumni office, I wrote an email which they sent to the 50+ dental school alumni in the Bay Area, telling the story of our trip, and then asking for a donation. The response has been so very generous, and while people are in process of shipping things to my house, I believe my goal of 500 toothbrushes will be met (the toothpaste seems to be a bit harder to come by).
And, in sharing my story with a couple of friends, don’t you know one person wrote me an email to say that she casually was telling her dentist about our trip and the first thing he said was, “how can I help?”.
One unexpected outcome so far was learning about an organization, Flying Doctors, a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that helps improve the health and well-being of the peoples of Mexico and Central America through the provision of no-cost, high-quality healthcare and health education clinics. A Creighton dental alum is the president of the San Jose chapter and I am going to their October meeting before our trip to share our story and collect their donation for us to take with us.
People in so very many ways are kind, generous, considerate, sharing, caring, and it often comes from places you never expect!
Peace! Love! Back soon…
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Going to Africa!
This is my first ever blog posting, so, I welcome ALL comments, thoughts, and ideas on how to make it easier for you to read.
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Just a "simple boy from Iowa", saying to myself, and out loud now over and over that I am going to Africa just sounds, well, crazy (in a great way!). About six weeks ago my partner David and I decided to make the trip.
WHY ARE WE GOING?
We have two dear friends, Scott and David, who are spending a year (Nov '08-Nov '09) volunteering in Swaziland, specifically in and around the town of Siteki. For the entire time of their trip, we have been talking via Skype, emailing, and in nearly every communication they have asked us to come visit. Finally some sense kicked into us. When will we ever have the opportunity to visit Africa, and not just be tourists, but actually get to spend time with friends who have been living there for nearly a year, and on top of that, get to see and feel the "real Africa"?
SCOTT AND DAVID IN SWAZILAND
Scott is a nurse who spends nearly every day traveling out into the bush country with a few others providing medical supplies, food, and most importantly HIV/AIDS drugs. You can read Scott's blog here as we have done and learn about the real and absolutely heart wrenching effects HIV/AIDS has had in the country.
Swaziland has the world’s highest adult HIV prevalence rate of 26.1%. Average life expectancy has dropped from 57 to just 31 years of age. There are 56,000 orphaned children and 10,000 adults and children died from AIDS in 2007 alone.
David is an experienced PR and Marketing administrator with the venerable Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. As the the principal American Foundation devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences, David has capitalized on his 15 years experience and has been spending his time working with the local Good Shepherd hospital, local groups, and individuals in any way he can including grant writing, providing administration functions, and being a beacon of hope for many.
You can read David's blog here and learn not only about the real devastation HIV/AIDS has wreaked on this small country's institutions but also about the small glimpses of hope and care they have been able to provide during their trip.
During our time with Scott and David, David and I plan to make numerous day trips into the bush country to meet the many(!) families, orphans, and others they have come to share on their blog postings. Reading blog postings and then seeing it for ourselves will be a very different experience, and one that I have no idea how we'll respond or react. But, we look forward to witnessing what is real and know it will help to shape and inform everything from that moment on, for the rest of our lives.
TRAVEL PREPARATIONS
Once we made the decision to go, three weeks 10/17-11/7, we had to sort out all kinds of things including air, accommodations, vaccinations, and what else we might do.
To get there, we fly from San Francisco to Washington DC (5 1/2 hours), layover for a few hours, get on a South African Airways plane that flies 8 1/2 hours to Dakar, Senegal, refuels, and then flies another 8 1/2 hours to Johannesburg, South Africa. We'll spend the night at the airport, and then grab a short 'hop' to Manzini, the only airport in Swaziland, where Scott and David will pick us up and drive back to Siteki (about 45 minutes). Without the overnight, total travel time is about 28 hours. Oh my....
Once there, we are staying for two weeks on the same property as Scott and David, the Mabuda Farms. Owned by Swazilands' ONLY, yes, only eye doctor, the doctor and his wife both run a working farm and have built some B&B type structures. We have a friend who has been and she says it is quite comfortable.
We're planning a short 2 day trip with Scott and David to the Kruger National Park in South Africa where we are promised seeing "every animal on the planet that has four legs". :-)
After two weeks we'll going to fly to Cape Town, South Africa and spend five days being "real" tourists. Scott and David will be preparing to leave Swaziland and head back to the United States, so it will be a good time for us to leave them. In Cape Town, we are learning there is much to see and do, so, we're very excited about that.
We got our shots last week at the San Francisco Immunization and Adult Travel Clinic , ugh. Polio booster, Typhoid (REALLY?!), and Tetnus. We've got our Malaria pills ready to go, and that's about it.
I'll write more before, during, and after our trip, but suffice it to say, we are thrilled and honestly, keep pinching ourselves.
Thanks for following...
--------
Just a "simple boy from Iowa", saying to myself, and out loud now over and over that I am going to Africa just sounds, well, crazy (in a great way!). About six weeks ago my partner David and I decided to make the trip.
WHY ARE WE GOING?
We have two dear friends, Scott and David, who are spending a year (Nov '08-Nov '09) volunteering in Swaziland, specifically in and around the town of Siteki. For the entire time of their trip, we have been talking via Skype, emailing, and in nearly every communication they have asked us to come visit. Finally some sense kicked into us. When will we ever have the opportunity to visit Africa, and not just be tourists, but actually get to spend time with friends who have been living there for nearly a year, and on top of that, get to see and feel the "real Africa"?
SCOTT AND DAVID IN SWAZILAND
Scott is a nurse who spends nearly every day traveling out into the bush country with a few others providing medical supplies, food, and most importantly HIV/AIDS drugs. You can read Scott's blog here as we have done and learn about the real and absolutely heart wrenching effects HIV/AIDS has had in the country.
Swaziland has the world’s highest adult HIV prevalence rate of 26.1%. Average life expectancy has dropped from 57 to just 31 years of age. There are 56,000 orphaned children and 10,000 adults and children died from AIDS in 2007 alone.
David is an experienced PR and Marketing administrator with the venerable Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. As the the principal American Foundation devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences, David has capitalized on his 15 years experience and has been spending his time working with the local Good Shepherd hospital, local groups, and individuals in any way he can including grant writing, providing administration functions, and being a beacon of hope for many.
You can read David's blog here and learn not only about the real devastation HIV/AIDS has wreaked on this small country's institutions but also about the small glimpses of hope and care they have been able to provide during their trip.
During our time with Scott and David, David and I plan to make numerous day trips into the bush country to meet the many(!) families, orphans, and others they have come to share on their blog postings. Reading blog postings and then seeing it for ourselves will be a very different experience, and one that I have no idea how we'll respond or react. But, we look forward to witnessing what is real and know it will help to shape and inform everything from that moment on, for the rest of our lives.
TRAVEL PREPARATIONS
Once we made the decision to go, three weeks 10/17-11/7, we had to sort out all kinds of things including air, accommodations, vaccinations, and what else we might do.
To get there, we fly from San Francisco to Washington DC (5 1/2 hours), layover for a few hours, get on a South African Airways plane that flies 8 1/2 hours to Dakar, Senegal, refuels, and then flies another 8 1/2 hours to Johannesburg, South Africa. We'll spend the night at the airport, and then grab a short 'hop' to Manzini, the only airport in Swaziland, where Scott and David will pick us up and drive back to Siteki (about 45 minutes). Without the overnight, total travel time is about 28 hours. Oh my....
Once there, we are staying for two weeks on the same property as Scott and David, the Mabuda Farms. Owned by Swazilands' ONLY, yes, only eye doctor, the doctor and his wife both run a working farm and have built some B&B type structures. We have a friend who has been and she says it is quite comfortable.
We're planning a short 2 day trip with Scott and David to the Kruger National Park in South Africa where we are promised seeing "every animal on the planet that has four legs". :-)
After two weeks we'll going to fly to Cape Town, South Africa and spend five days being "real" tourists. Scott and David will be preparing to leave Swaziland and head back to the United States, so it will be a good time for us to leave them. In Cape Town, we are learning there is much to see and do, so, we're very excited about that.
We got our shots last week at the San Francisco Immunization and Adult Travel Clinic , ugh. Polio booster, Typhoid (REALLY?!), and Tetnus. We've got our Malaria pills ready to go, and that's about it.
I'll write more before, during, and after our trip, but suffice it to say, we are thrilled and honestly, keep pinching ourselves.
Thanks for following...
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