I spoke a little about the “why” of this trip previously, but after three days visiting the hospital that the visit is based around, I’m now seeing the reality of the opportunity at hand.
What I expected
Some of what I’m doing is similar to what I expected:
- I’m meeting children and adults with disabilities and I’m telling their stories.
- Doing this leaves me with a real mix of emotions and feelings. It’s confronting, I’ve felt real sadness, I’ve had moments of hope and joy, I’ve been overwhelmed, and I’ve been inspired.
- The response of those who are reading the posts and tweets I’m making has been fantastic—the topic and medium have obviously connected with many.
- I feel myself changing. I’ve made trips to developing countries before to see similar projects and I know that each time I do, I return home a different person. This is certainly the case again.
What I didn’t
However there have also been a few unexpected things happen this week:
- I’ve had opportunity to talk to the team at the hospital itself about their own use of social media and blogging.
- I’ve learned a lot about blogging and seen the potential for using the medium to produce real-time coverage of such events and to promote great causes.
- I’m having a lot of ideas for future projects.
All in all it’s been an amazing week so far. If you’ve not already done so check out some of the posts I’ve written in the last three days:
Stories
- 30 Years of Waiting… Almost Over
- This is Amina – She Wants to Be a Doctor
- Baby Sharifu’s Fight for Sight
- Today I watch a Baby’s Life Transformed
Image Posts
Of course more posts are going up all the time this week (three or four per day) so keep dropping by the blog, follow@CBMAustralia on Twitter for updates, and subscribe to the RSS feed.
