9 sleeps left...

I've started packing!
I've got 3 shifts left on delivery suite placement, 1 meeting with my link tutor, 1 carboot sale and a trillion piddly little tasks to sort out.
I've got masses of stuff to take with me as donations for the hospital and orphanage as well as cash that's been donated by some very generous people too (details here).

Now as excited as I am, I'm also very nervous. I read this book just before starting my midwifery degree and the true story made me want to experience midwifery in a developing country. The book is an account of a teenagers life from a middle class family as the Taliban take over power. It inspired me because her mother was a doctor, and under the new ruling, women couldn't work, nor could they be seen by other men...so imaging the complications that arise during childbirth?! Afghanistan is still THE unsafest place to be pregnant with 1 in 11 women not surviving childbirth (Atlas of Birth, 2012), compared to 1 in 23 in Tanzania, and 1 in 4,700 here in the UK. Yet things are improving, and women are starting to regain some of the care facilities they should be entitled to. Here is another inspiring story of a young midwife who is making a difference. And, along with the adventure I'm about to embark on, much to my mothers concern, midwifery in Afghanistan is another venture that blows my mind and I'd love to persue some day...So far everyone I've told thinks I'm crazy...and yea, I know I am!

To Do:
change GBP to USD
finish packing
dye hair
find camera charger and memory cards
wax legs
decide on a cabin bag

14 days to go...

So in exactly 2 weeks time I will be flying over Europe somewhere having started my adventure of a lifetime! I think I'm almost sorted, my to-do list is finally beginning to shrink - YIPPEEEEE although my stack of things to pack is realllly growing, praying I don't go over the luggage allowance!

My placement goodie pack arrived from Women and Children Tanzania (the elective placement organisation I am travelling with), so excited when I opened that package...

As you can see, it contained a lovely cozy hoodie, a drawstring bag, a sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, pinard, fob watch, tape measure, a selection of gloves and alcohol hand gel! What a good goodie bag that is!

And I've set up a donation page too, for anyone who wants to donate follow this link! As the page explains, I want to give a cash donation directly to the people I am working with, rather than a global organisation. This way, I'll be able to see first hand how the money will help, how it might be used, and more importantly, the people who'll benefit from it! The only deduction will be the commission for exchanging the money, other than that, it goes straight to the people who need it!

Thank you! x