Introduction

Hello Everyone!

My name is Amanda Shifflett, and I will be traveling with Ryan Garner for the next 4 weeks to the Dominican Republic and Honduras. Hopefully I will be able to post about our adventures on this blog so my friends and family can know how awesome this experience is going to be! A little side note - I am not a blogger. I've never done this before, so we will see how it goes.

I am super pumped to be a part of this mission. Before I started pharmacy school I had a co-worker that was part of Project HOPE. She went to a few countries in the Pacific, and reading her blog posts got me interested. A few years ago I was also fortunate enough to be a part of a different mission trip to Nicaragua for a week, and during then I experienced how rewarding it is to be a part of something so great. It is because of these experiences, along with my deep-seated desire to help people, that I applied for the Project HOPE rotation. 

I will start off by saying that I am very nervous. I have never been on a ship before, and the longest I have been away from my husband and puppy is one week, so it is certainly going to be difficult (I also have no idea how the ham to pack for an entire month). However, I am sure it is going to be incredibly rewarding!

We leave for the airport tomorrow afternoon, and we will meet up with the navy ship on Friday. I am told that the wifi on board is very sketchy, but I hope to be able to post something after Sunday. Goodbye for now.