I am leaving today

Ok, at the moment I am at the school of nursing at Georgetown University about to recieve my deployment briefing. The nurses SOAR (Strengthening our AIDS Response) program that is sponsoring this trip is a research project in part run my faculty here at Georgetown University (Dr. Kevin Mallison) and one other researcher at Duke (Dr. Michael Relf) and we are meeting with them in a few minutes to go over a few things. The flight to South Africa (Johannesburg is at 5:40PM this afternoon leaving out of Dulles International Airport. I am still very excited about going and did not get much sleep last night at all.

I am traveling with two other nurses (Dennis Flores and Gerry Rebach) who are also members of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC). They are actually going to the site in Durban, South Africa but we are all traveling together to Johannesburg first. I will stay one evening in Johannesburg and leave for Swaziland at 10AM on sunday morning.

Gotta run its time to meet with the research team here.

Preparing for my Trip

I am in the midst of preparing for my trip to Africa. I have gotten my typhoid shot, insect repellent spray, and malaria pills so I am all set on that front. I have to go shopping still for a few things to take with me like my energy bars, microwave popcorn (I hear from experience travelors that its good take along for a snack), and travel size toiletries. At some point I have to actually pack as well. Attempting to travel light but having never been to Africa just don't know to take but I will figure it. Oh did I mention I am very excited about this opportunity. Will write more later but I wanted to get something up on the blog to start with.