Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Africa Bound

Months of preparation, weeks of planning and countless hours of anticipation have finally come to fruition. The PINCC team is Africa bound! Four of us are sitting in the airport awaiting our flight to London and then on to Nairobi, Kenya where we'll be meeting up with five other PINCC volunteers to begin a three week long medical campaign in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the four of us unloading our baggage at the airport, because we were quite the sight to behold. Four people and 11 giant suitcases, not one of which contained a single item of clothing or other personal accoutrement. We're a traveling mobile clinic with all of the supplies, equipment and medication necessary to train dozens of doctors and nurses, and treat hundreds of women in these three countries. Each of us has but a small carry-on to hold all of our personal supplies for the nearly month long journey. It's been truly an exercise in packing discipline for us.

We'll have a 24 hour layover in London before heading to Nairobi where we'll have a day to recoup, gather and do any last minute team preparations before driving to Kitale, Kenya. We'll spend our first week working in the Kitale General Hospital.

Stay tuned for more updates from the road.