Welcome!

Hello all!

If you're reading this, that means that (whether you knew it or not) you are about to travel alongside me on my trip to Africa this summer. So first off, I must say thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting my wonderful adventure! I would not be able to go on this trip without the countless donations, support and advice that so many of you have been sharing with me. And second, I must tell you how incredibly excited I am to begin such an amazing experience. I've talked about this with friends and family before, but ever since I was a little girl I've always wanted to travel abroad to see other places and cultures. It was in high school that I developed a desire to go to Africa to do some sort of humanitarian work in the many under-developed countries there. I've always had a dream of joining the Peace Corps at some point in my life, but until then I wanted to do a smaller-scale volunteer program before I graduated college. This summer I finally thought to myself, "So what's holding me back?" I started doing some research and found several different International Volunteer programs. I communicated with different people involved in these programs until I finally found one that fit with my views. The program I settled on is called Cross-Cultural Solutions. It has been described by its alumni volunteers as "a mini Peace-Corps". When I read that sentence a little "Eureka!" went off in my mind. I contacted a representative, did some thorough research and sent in my deposit this past September. I will be gone for 4 weeks. My departure date is set for May 18th and I will be returning on June 15th. Until then I have been doing a couple different fundraising tactics to help fundraise as much of my trip as possible.

1) Some of you may already know this, but I have partnered with a married American couple that does missionary work in the Philippines. They fund their work by making friendship bracelets with other Philippine families and sell them to make profits. By partnering with them, I have agreed to sell some of their bracelets at $2 a piece, and we split the total profits 50/50. So far this has helped me raise a fair amount of money and I am still selling these bracelets if anyone is interested! I have a link to my Facebook bracelet fundraising page posted here: Bracelets!

2) Many of you have received letters from me describing my trip and asking for donations, which might be what led you to this blog. I am still gratefully taking donations! A little support goes a long way, and I am so thankful for all the help that I have already received :)

• If you wish to make a monetary donation, I am taking checks made out to myself. They can be mailed to 135 Center St, East Lansing, MI, 48823.
• Each day in Africa costs me $150. If 28 people could support one day of my trip, the entire program fee would be covered! 

So as you can see, this is going to be an extremely amazing adventure and it is not something that I would be able to do without the wonderful support from my friends and family! You can expect more posts as my trip comes closer, but for now I thank you for taking the time to share this experience with me! 

~ Sarah