I won!...Now what?

That's what I was thinking for the first few hours after I heard the news I won this amazing Adventure Experience. To be honest, I'd done just about an hour of research prior to submitting my entry, so I was very far from knowing exactly what I wanted to do and how to make it all happen.

In the 24 hours following the announcement, I think I spent 20 hours on the Internet researching Tanzania and volunteer organizations that travel there. There are A TON of them. It became overwhelming...but I kept thinking, "this is the good kind of overwhelming."

Travis (my friend/travel partner) and I went to the bookstore the day after the announcement and bought the only travel guide for Tanzania we could find. I've read it almost cover to cover in the last few weeks. According to everything I'm reading, Tanzania is "THE AFRICA" people imagine when they think of the desert, the wild animals, the villages, etc.

This trip is going to be amazing.

In the week or so that followed, I began to narrow down the choices of volunteer organizations and even made some phone calls. (Actually- I spent about 5 hours on the phone one day "interviewing" these groups).

That's when things all started to fall into place.

I got an email from Todd Helmink. He's a sales rep in the Channel Sales division of Allscripts. As I was reading his message, I couldn't believe what he was saying: "I just returned from a 2 week volunteer trip to Tanzania at an AIDS orphanage..." After a few days of phone tag, we finally connected.

Todd began telling me about his friend Connie Naber and her volunteer organization Karama Connection; how she helped with the St. Lucia Hospice and Orphanage near Arusha. I felt like I'd just won the jackpot! This is EXACTLY the type of group I wanted to volunteer with. Connie and Todd volunteer out of the kindness of their hearts - and aren't out to make a buck on safaris and other excursions offered by some of the organizations I'd contacted.

St. Lucia was originally founded to provide hospice care to those dying of AIDS. The patients would come to St. Lucia for care during their final days. Many of them brought their children - also infected with HIV. Once the parents were gone, the children were left with no one to care for them. The director of St. Lucia, Winfrida, soon realized the need for an orphanage. That's where Connie stepped in - she helped raise money to fund a new building for the orphanage and a preschool.

When we go to Tanzania, we'll be able to help out in a variety of ways at St. Lucia. We'll help with the orphans. We'll work in the preschool. We'll do laundry. We'll clean the kitchen. We'll go on home visits to check on the patients St. Lucia supports in the surrounding villages. But most of all we'll be helping...in any way, shape or form they need us to for the two weeks we're able to be there.

Have I already mentioned...this trip is going to be amazing!