Very late blog post, oops! For my 23rd birthday this year, we took a day trip to the Majete Wildlife Reserve. One silly goal coming to Africa was to see hippos in real life (many of you know my obsession with Fiona at the Cincinatti Zoo) and here was my chance! After purchasing entrance tickets, we were able to drive our own car through the park. Pretty soon after we set off, we encountered an elephant blocking the road. Luckily it moved, and offered us an incredibly close view as we drove past. Later on we saw a mom and baby elephant across the river, along with SO MANY HIPPOS! Monkeys, warthogs, water buffalo, and many deer-like animals also made some appearances. Overall we got very lucky with the amount of animals we ended up seeing. Since they are living in their natural environment it can be very hit or miss! I will be doing a separate post with the majority of the photos I took, but too lazy to get them off of my camera at the moment 🙂 Before we left for the reserve, my housemates surprised me with rainbow cupcakes for my birthday! Everyone has picked up on the fact that I am a dessert fiend 😉
DONATION UPDATE: Thank you to all those who have reached out to me offering donations so far! My fellow volunteers and I have brainstormed and have come up with a cause that is near and dear to our hearts. That cause has a name… Patricia! Patricia is a native Malawian who works with the Project, being paid out of pocket by one of our research coordinators. She assists us with clinic, and often acts as a translator between us and the moms. She has a heart of gold, three young children, and is very poor. Since she does not have any credentials to her name, it is logistically difficult to be fully hired by the Project or any other place for that matter. In our many conversations with Patricia, we have identified her interest in becoming a nurse. Our idea is to fundraiser enough money to send her to nursing school, cover childcare costs (currently her 4 year old and 2 year old stay home alone while Patricia is working) and provide her family with the weekly stipend she would be forfeiting by being in school. We want to provide her a life skill that goes farther than just giving money to live on temporarily. When more details are ironed out, I will be posting an update, but I wanted to share our initial plan for those of you who have been asking! ❤️
Project Postgrad 