Tancan 2013 Medical Mission

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Friday August 9^th, 2013



Our Tanzanian Adventure Begins !!!





The day has finally arrived! After weeks of collecting monetary and material donations, my sister Renata and I are going on our first much anticipated medical mission to Tanzania with Chalice, a Catholic and Nova Scotia based sponsorship organization, dedicated to spreading and sharing God’s message of love and charity to those in need. Chalice, ranked by Money Sense Magazine as a Charity with an A rating in the field of international aid and development provides education and support to more than 47, 000 needy children and elderly across 55 programs sites in 15 countries.





We will be joining Tanzanian staff in providing medical clinics to the communities of Songea and Mbangamao. I am assigned to the HIV briefing and testing team whereas my sister is assigned to the Nutritional briefing, Vitamin A and deworming team. It will be quite an experience and we can not wait to get started but first we need to get to the airport.





Renata and I took the Greyhound from Mississauga to the Buffalo Airport, because the flight to Tanzania was a lot cheaper leaving from Buffalo than Toronto. With four suitcases completely packed with donations, it was a struggle to move our luggage from one stop to another, but we managed. At the airport, we took a shuttle to the hotel (Super 8) where we spent the night.





The Super 8 hotel had no elevator and our room was on the second floor. We did not want to carry up all our suitcases to our room, only to have to bring them down the next day. Luckily, the hotel had a storage room on the first floor.





After we got all settled Renata and I headed off to a restaurant called TGI Fridays, where we enjoyed a nice drink (Sangria and tropical rum punch), and food (salmon, flatbread and toffee pudding rum cake). Yum! Then we headed back to the hotel where we spent our last internet connection in North America checking our email and flight information before heading off to bed.





Tomorrow will be a start of an approximately 20 hour flight to Tanzania, departing from Buffalo to Washington D.C, Washington D.C. to Zurich and Zurich to DarSaleem. Two days of plane rides is sure to tire anyone out. Until tomorrow!

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