Things are about to change...

My name is Tim Constantino and last month I was accepted as a missionary in Kenya, Africa with the Notre Dame Mission Volunteers for 2007. The Notre Dame Mission Volunteers are organized by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SND). The SNDs have local missions in Baltimore, MD, but also internationally in Kenya and Peru.

I will be leaving at the end of this year for Malava, a small village in Kenya, eight hours from the capital, Nairobi. In Malava, I will be working with children at local schools and assisting a physical therapist with disabled children at a nearby medical center. I will be living in a house among neighboring mud huts with Ryan, my roommate from Pennsylvania. There will be no running water and the electricity will be unreliable. Despite not having these modern conveniences I am very much looking forward to my time spent there and see this as an opportunity to get back to basics.

In the meantime I am busy, in my hometown of Sterling Heights, Michigan, with preparations... fundraising, buying neccessities, getting the required immunizations, learning basic Swahili, and researching the Kenyan culture.

I am fortunate to be in contact with Cat and Cindy, the NDMVs in Kenya for 2006, via email and I am grateful for the advice that they give.

This blog is intended for my family and friends, and whoever else wants to read it, to keep track of my thoughts and experiences while on this journey.