So it begins...

Welcome to my record of my year in service with the Young Adult Volunteers in Zambia. After about two years of talking and talking and talking about doing this big, sacrificial act of serving abroad... IT IS FINALLY HAPPENING! After so much waiting, and even a period of considering throwing in the bag, it feels surreal to even write this first blog post because it is another reminder that this is real. Come August I will get on a plane and eventually find myself in Africa. FOR REAL!

Here is what I know about my year so far:

1) This is the first year YAV has sent volunteers to Zambia. I will be one of four women serving as volunteers. We have recently become facebook friends and they seem awesome! I believe they will all be 2014 graduates from college.

2) Our placement site coordinator has been serving in Zambia for a few years now with her family (husband and two boys). She seems to be a progressive and kind lady-pastor that I look forward to knowing better. In her time in Zambia, she has done much work to fight AIDS in Africa.

3) All four volunteers will be located in or around Lusaka, Zambia's capital city. We will be living in host families and most likely working at community schools. Community schools are run by Presbyterian churches and because they are tuition-free, cater mostly to orphans from AIDS and those who wouldn't be able to pay public or private school fees. We might teach or we might work on income-generating activities to make the schools more sustainable. Watch a video about the schools here.

4) I leave on August 18th, 2014. I will first spend a week in Stony Point, NY with all other domestic and international YAVs before the four of us fly to Zambia. I will return to the USA in August 2015.

Stay tuned for posts about the meaning of the title of this blog, my fundraising journey in the next few months (I will need your help!), and information about Zambia and my placement as I learn over the next few months.