Step One: Make a blog...

For the past month, my To Do list has consistently included the following task: Set up blog. Every week, I leave it unchecked. Until this week. I can finally draw a nice clean line through those words.

My To Do list, however, did not mention anything about what exactly I should DO with the blog after I set it up. That is left for me to figure out now - what might my friends and family want to hear? Why am I all of a sudden a "blogger", perhaps? Or how this could possibly have anything to do with my work in Ghana... well, to start off, it has EVERYTHING to do with my work in Ghana.

My hope, in creating a blog, is that the people I care about will be able to share this experience with me, even when we are so geographically separated. It is a way for me to feel like you're with me, even when you're not. I hope it will help you understand what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and why it's important. I hope you will enjoy reading my stories, because I know I will enjoy sharing them. And finally, I hope that through this new-age (for me, at least), faceless communication method, I can rely on you for help and support, because if there is one thing I do know about this upcoming adventure, it is that I will need help - help to stay focused, happy, and productive, to ensure that I get as much out of this opportunity as I can. It's an amazing, exciting, and intimidating challenge, and I promise to share it as best I can.