When I went to Africa two and a half years ago, it was mostly as a tourist. While the first trip wasn't always easy -- I tend to struggle a lot with homesickness -- I've known since I left that I want to go back to Africa some day and do something *useful* while I'm there. I've been looking at a trip to Tanzania through Global Volunteers since last spring. I have a lot of back-and-forth moments on whether I'm ready to do this or not, but God has a funny way of nudging me in the right direction.
A couple of weeks ago, a woman at church told me about an opportunity to volunteer in a nearby town by packaging food that will be sent to....of all places, Tanzania. I went to the organized event this afternoon and was amazed by how many people were there helping. They had 10 people at a station with 30 stations set up in a middle school gym. I got there almost a little late for the first packaging session, and shortly after I arrived they actually had to start turning people away because they didn't have enough room for them to work.
At each station we were putting together packages that contained soy product, dried vegetables, rice, and a vitamin tablet. These packages were to be dumped into boiling water and cooked to provide 6 servings of filling, nutritious food. I'm still not quite sure how we did it, but in less than an hour's time, the 300 workers had packaged 30,000 food packets. We were asked to quit a half hour early because they had another whole shift of volunteers scheduled to come in and needed us to leave them something to do.
The whole time I was working, my mind was on my own Africa experiences and my desire to return to the continent where I left a piece of my heart. I'm still not sure I'm ready to travel halfway around the world completely on my own, but it's only for 3 weeks and I know I'll come back, my life changed for the better once again. The most perfect part would be that I would be able to teach in a local school as my service project while there. How perfect!
The only real thing -- other than my own hesitancy -- standing in the way is that I don't know when the school year will start next fall. I am unable to go on the June/July trip because of a summer class I'm taking, and the July/August trip will mean I don't return to the States until August 16. If school keeps starting earlier here, this won't work. If, on the other hand, we go back to starting school a week later, I will have time. I also think if I keep telling people I'm thinking about going, I start to convince myself I'm really going, and that helps. I know I was scared out of my mind the first time I decided to go, and it appears this is no different!
Here are a few links regarding the topics in this post:
- Kids Against Hunger -- the nationwide organization that supports satellite locations which package this food product to send to various places around the world
- Outreach Africa -- the local organization that does many things to support the people of Tanzania, including being a satellite location for Kids Against Hunger
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