It's been quite a while since I have posted, so whether you've been reading this blog for a while or are here for the first time, thanks for taking the effort to click on the link or type in the web address! I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog full of disorganized thoughts, run on sentences, stories full of too much information, and lot of bullet points and lists. I'll do my best to update more often and keep things relatively interesting.
I'm going to try to give a quick synopsis of my life and give some updates. The last couple of years have been a stream of steady, wonderful craziness. Life is so full. Just a few highlights of the last few years have included:
- The privilege of being the maid of honor when my brother and dear friend got married (I was her friend first!)
- A whirlwind trip to Europe with my girl Rachel. Highlights included a a tour of the west coast of Ireland, exploring castles, eating a picnic dinner in front of the Eiffel tower, having afternoon tea in London, seeing Hamlet and the Harry Potter play, and walking an obscene amount every day.
- Participating and helping lead the newly formed young adult group at my church.
- Using this time in my life to try and experience new things like AirFit, Jiu Jitsu, being an extra in a TV show, concerts, plays, and hosting a murder mystery dinner.
- Continuing to work on the oncology floor at my hospital. I've been there for nearly three years, and I still like nursing! My unit started 12 hour shifts this past fall. This has been great for my schedule cause I only have to work three days a week!
- Counting down to 16 days to completing my master's degree! It has been a long, tedious road. I. Can. Not. Wait. To. Be. Done.
- Spending time with my incredible and supportive family and friends.
The focus of this blog will be changing somewhat. As a lot of you probably know by now, I am embarking on a exciting and wonderfully terrifying adventure to Togo, Africa this fall. I am going to teach nurses for 8 months. You may be asking, "What??? Why???" Here is my very shortened version of what brought me to this point.
- After my sophomore year of high school, I went to a youth conference with my church. At that time, I felt God calling me to serve Him for the rest of my life. I feel that my job as a nurse fulfills that calling, but overseas missions has been on my heart since that time.
- I am in a time of my life where I have the flexibility, skills, and available resources to serve. I feel like this is a once in a lifetime chance.
- I starting looking for opportunities last fall. I looked at other missions agencies and even the Peace Corps. My goal was to find a place that would allow me to use my master's degree to help teach nurses. I was drawn to teaching because of the lasting impact that it can make. Being a nurse in another country is awesome, but I really loved the idea of helping educate so that others could make an impact in their own country. I have a relative (second cousin once removed???) who organizes trips to Togo through ABWE. She asked me about three years ago if I would consider going to Togo. I said sure, but then forgot about it in the midst of the craziness of life and just trying to get through school. When I was looking for opportunities, I remembered our conversation and looked up the organization.
- I wasn't sure if this was what God was calling me to. I told Him that I would keep moving forward until He sent me a stop sign. He didn't. So here I go.
People have been asking me a lot of questions about the logistics my trip. To be quite honest, there is still a lot that I do not know. ABWE is helping me a lot, but they are thankfully sending out the information gradually. I am grateful because I've had a lot going on recently, and they aren't overwhelming me with too much information. Here are just a few things that I do know about my trip.
- They speak French in Togo. This is most people's second language, but it is the language used for education and business. I am trying to learn French. It is very hard.
- There are two hospitals run by ABWE. One is on the north side of the country while the other one is on the south. The one on the north side of the country is relatively new while the southern hospital is more established. Each have about 60 inpatient beds and an outpatient clinic.
- All patients hear the Gospel when they check in to the hospitals.
- Both hospitals have nursing schools. They train Togolese nurses in a 3 year program, and these nurses can work for decent pay and have a steady job.
- Along with the Togolese nurses, the hospitals are staffed by volunteers like myself.
- Togo is friendly towards missionaries.
- Togo is in one of the more populated areas of Africa. The two hospitals each see around 20,000 patients every year.
- I will be living on compounds close to the hospitals. I don't know much about my living or food situations.
- While I am there, I will be working in a variety of areas. This could include teaching classes to the nursing students, developing chemo protocols, working on continuing education with the nurses who have already gone through the program, and whatever else they have for me to do. I believe I will be working at both hospitals. I am hoping that my next step will be figuring out more specifics on what I'm doing so that I can prepare appropriately.
I will be updating this blog as I learn more. I will use it as my primary means of communication with people back home. I want to be able to share stories and talk about how God is working all the way across the world. Hopefully the internet there will allow me to do this :) . Thank you for reading and joining me! Please don't hesitate to comment or ask questions! I will do my best to be good at communicating!
Because they haven't heard,
Caroline
