It’s currently 5:32 PM (BST) and although we have not yet reached Malawi, we have done our fair share of traveling. Over the last few days, I’ve traveled from Chicago to Houston for Houston to London from London to Johannesburg and the final leg of the trip will take me to Blantyre, Malawi.

So far, the London stop has been the most exciting. With a 12 hour layover, we had plenty of time to experience many of the sites that London has to offer. We saw Big Ben, watched the changing of the guard, and had a lovely lunch in the park. While our stop in Johannesburg has not been as action packed, we did manage to step outside the airport for a few minutes (now we can officially say that we’ve been to Johannesburg!). It may be a good thing that we’re not going on another excursion because the downtown has given me the opportunity to reflect on all of the things that we have done and all of the things still to come.

While we’ve only been traveling for 3 days, our journey started weeks ago.  Over the last few we have put a countless number of hours into trip preparation. We collected valuable advice from last year’s interns, we prepared several technologies to be taken to Malawi (including a breast cancer model, dosing clips, and an ostomy training model), and we brushed up on our Chichewa. Because of all this preparation, it would be easy to believe that I am fully prepared for what’s to come. However, one of the most valuable pieces of advice we received from the previous interns is that our experience may be completely different from their experience and we should learn to expect the unexpected. As we travel through countless airports and through the streets of London, I can’t but feel more and more excited about many memories, progress, and (hopefully!) friends that will be made in the coming weeks. I do not expect the journey to be easy, but I am certain that it will be worthwhile.