Monday, 30 January 2017

Let's get lost.

In 35 days I will be embarking on the amazing opportunity to travel to Mongu, in Western Zambia. Myself, and twenty other nursing students will be completing our FINAL practicum in both hospital and rural settings. We will spend five weeks in the Mongu, before myself and my life wife travel to Cape Town in South Africa. Danny and another friend will be meeting us there. Our current plan is to spend two weeks traveling through Namibia before heading back home. All in all, I will be gone for just over 7 weeks.

I am always fascinated learning about other countries prior to travels. Lately, I have been reminded of my first trip to Africa in 2008, where we visited an orphanage. I remember being so amazed at how happy the hundreds of children were to just be visiting with us. In North America, so quickly it seems that as a population, we have fallen away from just being happy having face to face,  meaningful conversations with our friends and family. It seems we are now partially present, distracted  by our cell phones, Facebook, etc. I am looking forward to "disconnecting to connect" on our trip. I am hopeful that I will remain less conscious of my phone and social media upon returning back to Canada. 

Back to Mongu... the "hospital" there is the main hospital in the Western Province of Zambia. Patients can travel very far in hopes of receiving treatment. Although we are given pre-departure training and have listened to the stories from past students, I am incredibly nervous as to what we will encounter! However, I have always had a passion for Global Health, and I hope this is the first stepping stone towards many international nursing opportunities  As often as I can (internet there apparently is more than slightly unreliable) I will try to post updates on our adventures here!

You can also follow (nursey) posts from our group at ubconursesinzambia.blogspot.com

Xx



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