In the air in 18 days

It's all starting to feel very real now. In 18 days -- on March 2nd at 7am, to be exact, I'll be on my way to Kenya, and then on March 14th, on to Uganda. Yikes!

I've been planning this trip for nearly a year now, working with Marsha Wallace, the founder of Dining For Women, under whose auspices this trip is happening. I've been volunteering with Dining For Women (DFW) for over 3 years, leading a chapter first in Corvallis, now here in Portland, holding educational potluck dinner circles once a month. We take the money we would have spent going out to dinner, and pool our donations in support of grassroots organizations in the developing world that help alleviate extreme poverty. DFW supports a variety of programs all over the world --a different one each month -- that foster good health, education, and economic self-sufficiency specifically for women and girls (www.diningforwomen.org).

Over a year ago, I naively volunteered to be in charge of the travel program, and so have found myself at the center of all the planning, publicity, and general hoopla for not one but two trips, involving two tour guides and 25 travelers from across the country. It's been, shall we say, a learning experience. But with the responsibility comes the chance to influence some of the details of the trip -- this year's trip is for women only, we'll be getting to see a dance performance in Uganda on our last night :-), and we'll be staying in Nairobi at a locally-owned hotel as opposed to the "big box"-type hotel we were originally booked into. Luckily, the two tour guides we're working with are fantastic and take care of everything on the ground in each country, which would more than boggle my mind if I tried to do that piece too. Our itineraries are fantastic, and include an exquisite mix of meeting with the women in the groups we've supported in the last year, and getting a chance to go on safari to experience the wonderful wildlife. The groups we'll be visiting on this trip are The BOMA Fund in Kenya (www.bomafund.org), and BeadForLife in Uganda (www.beadforlife.org). One of the pieces I'm most looking forward to is a visit to the Jane Goodall Institute in Uganda, and going chimp tracking! I have a bit of a thing for these close cousins of ours...

So I'll sign off for today with my tidbit of exciting news -- I contacted The Oregonian (Portland's premiere newspaper) today about doing an article in the Travel section on my trip, and they've expressed an interest! Granted, it was couched with "IF what you write/photograph comes out interesting" but, hey, I get that! All I want is the opportunity. And what an opportunity this entire trip is for me! I feel so lucky, so blessed.