Almost gone...........

We are just about gone! Yippee!

Most of the group has already flown over the ocean. There are only a few of us left packing the remainder of our belongings into already overstuffed bags. It is amazing how much stuff a person thinks they need, even more amazing how much a person can shove into a bag when it is already full!

Some of the group decided to take a few days in London before heading on to Zambia- I've heard from them that they are tired and cold but safely in London and enjoying the adventure so far. There are 6 of us left in Canada and we have gone from counting the days to counting the hours until take off....we're at 48 exactly in case you were wondering. Tomorrow we brave the drive to Vancouver- sure hope the roads are good!

Someone asked me what we packed in our big bags for Zambia- the question is what did we NOT pack! Seriously, we packed enough stuff to supply a small orphanage and hospital! Some major things I remember are:

-clothes
-baby hats and blankets
-toys and art supplies
-TONS OF STICKERS!
-medicine
-wound dressing supplies
-suction tubing and neonatal resuscitation equipment
-glucometer testing strips and readers (to check blood sugar levels)
-gloves
-textbooks and other teaching materials

It was really fun to pack and at times we were overwhelmed at the generosity of everyone who donated stuff for us to take! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who gave!

And now we just wait for our plane to take off...with us in it of course! Then we will meet our fellow students in the London airport from which we will take off to Lusaka together. Fay, Jess and Mary are waiting for us there- last I heard they were even going to go grocery shopping for us ahead of time- oh the service we get from them :)

Looking forward to this great adventure!

~Jessana

A New Team- A New Adventure!

Well, the UBCO Nursing School is at it again! They have accepted the challenge with excitement and anticipation and are now just counting the days until take off! After months of preparation, passport applications, packing and re-packing they are in their last week of school before they leave. For some the count down is 2 days, for others 6- but eventually we will all meet as a group of bedraggled travelers ready to live in Africa for 7 weeks! How exciting…



Our lovely group consists of Fay- our fearless leader. Along with her are two seasoned Zambian travelers and previous UBCO nursing students, Jessica and Mary, who are lending us their nursing and African expertise and support while we are there. They are already known and loved in the village and we are so happy to have them in our group. To round out the group are the students. We are a colorful group with many talents and backgrounds who all have one thing in common- our love of nursing and desire to test our skills and spirits in new settings. There is a lot of us…

Gabby
Alex
Miranda
Heather
Jessana
Lynnelle
Kelsey
Leah
Jessica W.
Hannah
Shannon
Michelle
Jessica L.
Melanie

…and we will all be posting to this blog at various points along our trip. We thank you in advance for reading these updates and promise to do our best to keep them coming! Please keep us in your thoughts over this next week as we fit a million things into a few short days! Our itinerary changes daily and we are truly learning the meaning of TIA- this is Africa. If the last few weeks are any indication of how our trip will go we are both excited and terrified. This will truly be a life changing trip.

Today was our packing day- and boy did we pack! Here are few pictures of our packing day! I am seriously so surprised how much stuff you can fit into hockey bags. It's amazing...now we have to figure out how to get all this stuff to the airport!