Explaining "The Effect"

Welcome to my blog! I'm Hannah (as you probably know if you're reading this), and this summer I'll be spending five weeks in Migori, Kenya with Medics to Africa. I'll be leaving in two weeks, but I thought I would take the time to blog ahead to let people know what I'm doing to prepare and why doing something like this is so important to me.

With all that said, this first post is dedicated to explaining "The Africa Effect," my blog's namesake.  I learned at a young age the importance and joy of giving to others. That combined with my love of traveling and exploring the world quickly made mission work an important piece of my life. After several wonderful trips of helping however I could I finally found what it was I wanted to do with my life when I traveled to Swaziland, Africa to work with The Luke Commission in the summer of 2010 (you can learn more about them and their work at lukecommission.org). I went as a journalist hoping to catch some footage that would land me a big time internship and left as an inspired pre-med student.

Me and some of the wonderful Swazi children

Conducting an interview in Swaziland

My father, a surgeon, and a few Swazi doctors who inspired me to pursue medicine.

So here I am finally preparing to combine a recently discovered passion with an old love. But as I was searching for a program to travel with I knew there was one place I really wanted to go again: Africa. I wish it was possible to put into words the spark that ignited when I worked with the Swazi people, but it's something that I couldn't get enough of. You see, these are people who have nothing. Less than nothing. But somehow they emit a greater amount of joy than people I know who have more luxury than you could imagine. And it's infectious. I saw a boy with a broken femur walk without complaint, a  young woman praise Jesus for a bandage, and workers dance with incredible passion despite working all day and being awake at 3 A.M. When I experienced this joy, this compassion and gratefulness I didn't want to go back, I NEEDED to go back.

Excitement can't even begin to describe how I'm feeling in the weeks leading up to returning to Africa. I  can only hope that the inspiration and drive I got in Swaziland will be strengthened as I travel to Kenya, that I can more accurately explain to you "The Africa Effect" and that maybe I can convince you that you need to experience it too.