My Fellow Volunteers

This week I received some more information from Baltimore on the other volunteers that I will be serving with. I will be serving in Malava with a guy named Ryan, but there will also be two volunteers, Sandra and Arielle, serving in Nairobi.

Ryan is from Havertown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of West Philadephia. He graduated from Penn State University in Communications where he had an interest in working in radio. He went to St. Joseph's, a prestigious Jesuit High School, in a tough section of North Philadelphia where he began doing volunteer work for the local community. He has also worked with Habitat for Humanity, helped deliver Christmas presents to needy children, and has done tons of tutoring.

Sandra is from Boston and has both a B.A. in Communications and one in Political Science. She went to a small Catholic High School, ran by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur (SND), called Emmanuel. She currently works for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Communications. Her mother works with the Department of Defense and her father is a retired naval officer so she has grown up all over the world. She was born in Panama and has since moved every two years of her life. She has lived in Cuba, South Korea, China, Thailand, Russia, Australia, Maine, Rhode Island, and New York.

Arielle is originally from northern Virginia, but she currently lives in Northeast Washington D.C. where she graduated this past May from Catholic University with a B.A. in Anthropology, she became interested in serving in Africa when she spent last summer in Kenya at a paleoanthropological field school through Rutgers University, she had close relations with the local Dassanech tribe and fell in love with the people and the country.

So far, we seem like a pretty good group. I am happy, excited, and proud to be working with all of them next year.

Learning Swahili

I understand that where I will be in Kenya some English is spoken, however the primary language is Swahili. Therefore, I will be trying to pick up as much Swahili as I can before I leave. To do so I have ordered the recommended Lonely Planet Guide to Kenya as well as Peter Wilson's Swahili. I also picked up an English-Swahili Dictionary. I found the best prices on Amazon and even qualified for the Super Saver Shipping. I ordered them on October 1st and just two of the books arrived today. I am still waiting on the Peter Wilson book. The Super Saver on Amazon saves you a little money, but one thing it doesn't save you on is time.

In the meantime, I will be using the Pimsleur Swahili CD set I found at the public library.

Shots, shots, and more shots!

Today I went to the Health Department Clinic and the Travel Clinic for my required and recommended vaccinations. All together I had to get five shots...ouch! Three in one arm and two in the other. All in all, the shots weren't that bad. In fact, they were probably more painful on my wallet...costing almost $400! I got the required Yellow Fever vaccine with the very much recommended Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Polio, Typhoid, and Tetanus shots. I decided against getting the Rabies pre-exposure shots. There are three of them at $150 each. I still have to return in a month for part two of the Hepatitis series and the Meningitis vaccine. Fun stuff!

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.