March 31st I will leave Washington D.C. and head back to Malawi. This will be the first time I take this journey on my own. I am so lucky that I have friends in Malawi who have helped to make this trip happen. My good friend Isaac will wait for me at the airport in Malawi and has rented a car for us for the week. Having him with me was one of the things I knew I had to have in order to make this trip work. Andrew Gray (another Malawi friend) has generously arranged for me to stay with him and his family at their guest house, and he has set up several site visits for me.The purpose of this trip is different than the last 5. I wont have a group of volunteers with me, but they will be constantly on my mind. I will seek out new projects for upcoming trips in order for the groups I travel with to make the biggest impact during their 2 week stay. For the first time in 4 years the itinerary for my trips is changing. This is such an exiting change, but at the same time a challenge. While in Malawi I will also be scouting out our accommodations and making sure that ever detail is in place so that when the Summer volunteers arrive things will be smooth sailing 🙂 …or should I say as smooth as possible when considering we are at the mercy of Malawi.

I have never traveled to Malawi in April so it will be exciting to experience the landscape during a different time of year. I will visit Mtendere Village and check in on my friends there so that excites me as well. I have my fingers crossed that I will have the ability to update this blog while Im there so it is my hope that this will keep my friends and family connected to me during this journey.

Many of the trips I have taken in the past have been a leap of faith and this adventure will be no different. The details are not planned, but the basic logistics are. There is a part of me that knows there are projects in Malawi waiting to be discovered, stories waiting to be told, and children and families waiting for an opportunity to be given a hand up.

I can not promise that I will be able to update this blog daily while I am there (Mom) so please don’t be worried if there isn’t a post each day. On the last trip I was lucky in the fact I had my friend Ellen to help with the blog posts 🙂 and we were in a hotel with a computer room. We motivated each other and kept each other on task as far as the blog went. I promise I will try and as long as the internet is working, and I can get to a computer each morning or evening I will keep everyone posted.

One of the things I always look most forward to when heading to Malawi are the miracles…the moments that can’t be anticipated, but that always have such an enormous impact. I fly over not knowing what stories I will carry back home with me, but look forward to experiencing them every day.

I will post once more before I leave March 31st.