I have always wanted to go on a mission trip or volunteer trip of some sort; I just never knew how to go about finding a trip that would interest me. Then one night I had the genius idea of searching these four simple words in Google, “Overseas nurse volunteer trip”. It led me to a website called Work the World. Work the World is an organization that provides overseas internship placements in third world countries. They have destinations all around the world from Argentina to Sri Lanka. The internship placement that caught my eye is in Tanzania, Africa.
Tanzania is located near the world-famous Serengeti plains, the Ngorongoro
Crater, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar Island, and the world-famous Maasai tribe.
Tanzania offers stunning scenery, fascinating cultural excursions, and wildlife
adventures. Those are really nice perks,
but they are not the reason I am going. I want to go because of the volunteer
internship they offer in Pediatrics. By volunteering in Tanzania I will be able
to see firsthand critically advanced diseases and pathologies enabling me to
develop new skills and to better understand the progression of these diseases. For
the last week of the internship I am going to participate in the village health
care experience which allows me to live with a family of the Maasai tribe for
that whole week, fully submersing me in that culture. Not only will I gain the
satisfaction of volunteering, I will be able to accumulate knowledge I can use
to become a better, more culturally competent nurse. Please follow me through
this blog as I prepare, fundraise, and travel to Tanzania.
