the early stages

so this is my first blog post on here. i'm dedicating my blog to my upcoming ghanaian adventure, updating you every step of the way until i come back home in may. it's only september 8th 2008 right now, but the excitement is building in me already. i am almost done with the application process and only have about three weeks left until i'm officially accepted. not to jump the gun or anything, but the prospect of living in ghana for 5 months is so exciting. i met with gillian at think the other day and she is going too! she is a fellow nyu navigator and she and i share a similar desire and motivation for going, and it's going to be wonderful having someone there who i already know, and who can encourage me both spiritually and in my volunteering endeavors.

just a little background on WHY i want to go:

primarily, i want to go to work with the West African AIDS Foundation (WAAF), which is an amazing organization involved in AIDS outreach. they fund programs for aids awareness and education, as well as provide counseling and encouragement to people living with the virus. since the beginning of last spring semester, my heart has been yearning to go to africa and do some kinds of aids education/awareness work there. i spent many nights talking to my best-friend and now-roommate rebecca about it, bouncing off ideas with her and thinking of ways to get over there this summer. i considered kenya, uganda and ghana all as possibilities for the summer. unfortunately, plans fell through and i didn't make it to africa this summer. how great would it be to, a full year later, actually get to go?

i hope by saying "africa" i am not overgeneralizing the continent, because each country and culture is so vastly different, that there is no "africa" that unanimously applies to each country. each country faces different needs and hardships, economic in/stability, cultures, etc. none are the same and a gross generalization is ignorant and unfair. however, for this blog's sake, when i refer to africa i mean africa. in january i had no clear country of choice, i just knew that the rising AIDS epidemic which infects the very deepest and widest parts of africa was something that i had to face head on. i didn't care how i got there or where specifically "there" was, but i knew i needed to go. ever since, the calling has not ceased, but instead grown exponentially. but i know i cannot bite off more than i can chew. i cannot expect to save the world in one semester. well really, i cannot do anything- for everything is through god's power and will, and what needs to be done, in whatever time or fashion that is, will get done. but this study abroad opportunity provides me with every single thing i need to work with an NGO to promote AIDS education and raise awareness.

oh yeah, and not to mention ghana's gorgeousness and rich and diverse culture- talk about a life experience. i am SO excited to see what happens, where this goes, what classes i end up taking, and how fully i immerse myself in ghana's culture.

here are my goals listed succinctly:
*to work with WAAF extensively and gain experience in running an AIDS awareness program
*to get to know locals, and through them get to experience the REAL ghana, not the nyu-in-ghana ghana
*to fully and wholly give of myself
*to learn native ghanaian languages (or maybe just one- there are over 250!)
*to go to school, and learn at both the nyu university and the two local universities
*to make native friends and nyu friends
*to travel around the country and around africa
*to try new foods (talk about a leap of faith)
*to completely let go of expectations and let god do what he will
*to visit a beach, a rainforest, a desert, a metropolitain city all in 5 months
*to help the hurting, whoever and whatever that may be, in whatever capacity possible
*to be the hands and feet of christ
*to laugh and share life and cry and love and live

i think that's enough for tonight, more updates whenever i find out (if) all is official!

lovelovelove