Ok, so I have packed and re-packed continually wondering do I have everything? To be honest, I have never been gone a whole month from this country. I know that I will be able to laundry, so why do I need so many clothes? I have this thing about having a pair of underwear for everyday for at least half the month. I don't know why, but I guess I just like clean underwear! Truthfully everything that I need is packed into a hiking backpack of my brother's and I can carry it all on because I also have this fear of lost luggage and wearing the same clothes 12 days in a row (again that clean underwear thing). One thing my short term mission experience has taught me, if you want to guarantee its arrival, carry it on. So, I am carrying on everything that I need or at least can do without for a few days if I have to. I do switch airlines in London, so I will have to recollect everything there. If it is lost at that point, then I will know it. I am sure that it will be ok and that everything I am bringing will eventually find its home. This is my first experience at checking something other then a suitcase, but supposedly this "sport locker" I bought at the recommendation of Brad Logan, will fit the checked luggage criteria. Amazon says it will. I managed to do pretty well at gathering up all the "requested" items for TZ, first and foremost, the medications for the hospital.
I have no idea what is in store for me once I get there, but luckily Brad will be there to meet me and show me around. I really just want to deliver some babies and hold a few babies and think about all the good that Hands4Africa is trying to accomplish and how we can best do that. As I was making my journey to Phoenix yesterday, I drove through part of the Navajo Nation I hadn't seen (which is no surprise, since it is the size of West Virginia!) and this view was incredibly beautiful. Who knew that there was green things that grew amidst all the red dirt? Yet, mixed into the beautiful mesas and green things there was a landscape dotted with homes that were in shambles and communities that had limited access to resources. I couldn't help but wonder how what I was driving through would compare to where I was going in Africa? For the past two years, I have worked with the Navajo people and basically beat my head against the wall. While there is such a need for health education, comprehension and improving personal responsibility and accountability for health care, there is an equal and opposite greater force that keeps improvements from happening. The force comes in many forms, politics, individual willingness, and cultural barriers. Recently it has come to my attention that I may have a partner in crime (you know who you are!), who carries the same passion for improving the health and welfare of the Navajo people, mainly because they are his people. Maybe having someone who has dealt with these forces his entire life will help me figure how to actually do some good instead of putting a bandaid on the same wound over and over. Jobs, better access to good, nutritious food, better access to quality healthcare either on the rez or off, and creating opportunities for people to leave the rez for a higher education and be able to come back and make a difference are all things that are needed here in the U.S.
In Tanzania, I already know that progress will be slow, but the greatest difference is that the help is welcomed with open arms. The people there are practically crying out for help. I have been told that if the Americans come and say it will happen, then it will happen. I am not going there to serve up empty promises, but to make plans to fulfill these promises. To see mothers and infants not die due to the simple act of child birth (not that child birth is simple mind you) because they have good access to medical facilities to deliver safely, to see the death rate of children under the age of 5 become non-existant because we have improved sanitation and immunization rates, to see the poverty level improve because we have created jobs.
While, my future is uncertain, my grandma told me this morning that as long as I continue to walk in the plans that God has laid before me, I am in the safest place that I can be. So with those words, I leave you my friends and will write again from Africa. Stay tuned for pictures. Thank you to everyone for your love, support, unending friendship, and patience in reading my blogs!
Love you all.
Rebecca
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