twenty eight days.

the countdown has officially begun, and i am so very excited to say that i leave for kenya in less than a month! the plane tickets and most of the things i need for the trip have been bought, and i'm anxiously anticipating finally being able to board delta flight 68 at 6:15pm on june 28th. i'm not, however, excitedly anticipating the nineteen total hours of flying time to get there. thankfully, our flights have been broken up so we have an overnight layover in amsterdam going and coming back, and i am already anticipating how great a hotel bed is going to feel after a month of sleeping in what is basically a glorified hut. the unfortunate part of having this blog right now, is that until i get to kenya, there's not a great amount of information to update all of you on. however, i will be posting a few more entries once the departure date nears, so keep checking back!

it is hard to believe that in just five short months, i will be making my way to africa.

for those of you viewing this, i assume you are doing so because you received the letter i sent out asking for your partnership, and for that, i thank you from the bottom of my heart.

i would love to be able to say that taking a trip like this has been something i have always wanted to do, but if we're going to be totally honest here, that's not really the case. i have heard stories of mission trips from friends, considered doing something similar, gave it serious thought for about a week or so, and moved on. this program, however, really pulled at my heart strings.

i stumbled upon IVHQ by doing what everyone my age does on a daily basis: facebook stalking. i noticed that an older friend of mine had posted pictures from a trip to tanzania. shortly after contacting her and getting more information, i was hooked. after visiting the website and looking over the different trip opportunities, there was no doubt in my mind anymore. this was something i had to do. torn between ghana and kenya, i had a big decision to make. after much more research, prayers for guidance and many pacing laps around my kitchen counter, i had my answer: kenya.

with my decision concrete, i went back to the program website and applied. within the next week i was put in contact with the kenyan program leaders, and a few other volunteers who had previously been to kenya. after hearing some of their stories and looking at previous trip pictures, i was more excited about going to kenya than i have ever been for anything in my entire life.

i don't know many things about the journey i am about to embark on, but i do know this: i have already fallen in love with kenya and all of its people.