Almost that time!

Well - only 5 days left until I finally get on that amazing 11 hour BA flight from London to Lusaka, and so will begin my first trip to Africa. 5 days is being optimistic of course, as I hear that it's quite difficult to get into Zambia without a passport! Here's hoping that the UK Consulate in NYC can finish processing my UK work visa and have it back to me in time to make the flight.

For all of you out there that don't know why I am going - here's the low down: I have decided to take the 2 months I have off between my time working in Bermuda, and moving to the UK and to use it to do some volunteer work in Africa. I went through an organization in London called Accounting for International Development http://www.afid.org.uk and they set me up with 2 organizations in Kitwe, Zambia. Basically I will be going down to do help these organizations out with their accounting, finance and a few other things. The two charities I will be helping are:

1) Ubumi Project Africa which is a Zambian organization with the fundamental goal of improving the lives of children suffering as a result of HIV and AIDS. Ubumi exists to provide quality care and support to households living with orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC), prevent the further spread of HIV/AIDS among children, alleviate poverty and strengthen community response through sensitization and empowerment.

2) Friends of the Street Children which aims to change perceptions of street children, working to find long term solutions; providing refuges, high quality street-based services and offering much-needed friendship, guidance and support. One of FSC’s great successes has been their work delivering education to children on the street. In 2007 alone, 144 students attended street corner classes and over half went on to further education or training.

I will be flying down to Zambia with my good pal Steve who is doing similar work for an organization in Kabwe, Zambia. You can see his blog and updates at http://steveisinzambia.wordpress.com. Both of us will be in Zambia for 6 weeks and then will be heading down to do some traveling in South Africa, visit friends in Jo'burg and then ending up in Cape Town.

Stay tuned in for more updates!