#MISSIONKENYANURSING2018 (1)

Traveling to remote, underserved countries, has been a dream of mine since the spark that influenced my career choice as nurse gave its first flicker. 

Now, here I am at 2am, in a deserted airport in Nairobi,Kenya, just myself, my metallic bags and the airport security officer manning this 
deserted terminal, as I wait for my next flight. I m using this time to reflect upon on how I got here, as I anticipate my experience in Kenya for the next few weeks. 

5 years years into nursing, a few months as a certified NP, $3000 of fundraising, and 2 plus days of travel later,  my 4th medical mission is underway. 

Back when I graduated nursing school I had written a proposal for my ideal medical mission that I wanted to start. I had felt that many medical missions that you see in the media function as bandaids for issues in those undeserved countries. Volunteers go and do great work patching up the wounds, but when another wound appears or this one gets infected, that volunteer is long gone. Thus, my ideal international medical mission, was not
 just to patch up wounds but to help the humans 
living in these countries learn to patch their own wounds. 

My past few missions incorporated teaching, but this one is all about it. My vision, together with my friend Leah, and DeAnn, who organized this grassroots organization, is to provide clinical, hands on skills to both nursing students and practicing nurses in this little land at the edge of Kenya, at the border of Uganda. 

This one is my longest mission yet, and I can’t wait to share my experience. 

Lights in the airport are turning on, and suited people are flocking in with their coffee jugs,ready for a new day. Time to give them back their airport terminal that I moved into for the past few hours, and embark on the final leg of my journey for #KenyaNursing2018. 

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