28Oct

Guatemala

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I am excited about an opportunity I have to spend a week on a humanitarian trip to Guatemala with some college students. The trip will happen in January 2010, and the sending organization has said they can set up a nursing clinic for me to participate in.

I intend to make full use of this gift, ensuring I learn about the structure of organizations who do humanitarian work overseas; running a clinic and performing nursing tasks in a foreign country; working within a foreign culture. The skills I learn on this trip will be directly applicable to the work I have set before me in the Congo.

Because I do need to raise my own support for this trip, I welcome all gifts. You can make a donation at http://www.globalinfusion.org – be sure to indicate the gift is for Jennifer Vanderlaan for the January 2010 Guatemala trip. I need to raise $1600, which works out to $200 per day. The fee covers my flight, visa, accommodations and food while there. I already have my passport and the necessary vaccinations, so no need on that end this time.

Thankful for your prayers and support, and check back for updates. If possible, I will write updates while in Guatemala – but even if I cannot photos and information will be posted as soon as I return.

25Sep

Sending out Information

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The last month has really been a blur. In addition to getting information about the trip into a format that can be shared, I have also started my second semester of nursing school. This has really caused me to change my focus from the women to my studies, but I have not forgotten them or the reason I am in school.

If Tammy or I have your address, you should have already received a newsletter with highlights from the trip. I do have a few extra so let me or Tammy know if you want more copies to share with others.

If you gave money to the trip, you should receive very soon a CD-ROM with more photos and stories to enjoy. Jeff just finished making the copies for me, they are in the mailers and addressed. Now I just need to find time to stop at the post office. They will be coming, so watch your mailbox!

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01Sep

Finances

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One of the things we needed to pay attention to with this trip is the amount of money it actually costs to do this. We had no idea how much money to budget, how much things cost or what types of bills we would need to pay. Thanks to the smart planning of my husband, we took extra money to cover the fees (extortion) that is just a way of life in the Congo.

So, as a recap, we paid for:

two Americans to travel to Central Africa, with the proper vaccinations, visas and evacuation insurance
35 women to travel to a conference center
use of the conference center meeting room and accommodations for 8 nights
Food for us and the 35 women (and their children, plus the extra help we had and the women who came in only for the day)
Materials for the attendees
Travel, hotels and food for us as we continued to explore the area and the culture – while making future plans after the conference
Incidental expenses (like the radio, video, use of the electricity, protection with police and army)

And the total cost to train the 53 midwives and beginning the planing for midwives in Central Africa: $15,000

This seems awfully high and really low at the same time. One thing to remember is that we spent about $6000 before we ever left the US, because we needed to travel to the area. We also needed special supplies like water filter bottles and malaria pills.

We will be much better prepared for the next trip.

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09May

Raising Money

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I know I should have started this part of the work earlier, but with nursing school and my travel schedule the money raising was not as high a priority to me. Not so any more! So today, amidst the Mother’s Day festivities at my children’s school and the birthday party at the roller rink I’ll be making a list of people and places to contact to try to get enough money to travel to Central Africa and survive for the few weeks we’ll be there.

If I do really well I will also raise enough money to offset the costs of the volunteers from Central Africa who will be joining us and I will be able to get them supplies. In all I estimate that will take $15,000. Not small change and I admit it seems too much for three months. I guess I shouldn’t have waited so long to raise the money.

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