First Post and SEVEN DAYS AWAY!!!

Hello Everyone!

This marks the GO! South Africa Team's first official post on blogspot prior to our departure one week from today on Monday, May 18th! Here, team members will blog about their experiences as we embark on this journey to South Africa. It will also allow all of YOU back at home to see what we are doing and follow along on the journey with us. Please check this page often, and we promise to do our best to update regularly as well!

My name is Roxanne De La Torre and I am this year's group leader for the Global Outreach Project to South Africa. I am joined by 11 other wonderful people, from all across the United States, who have spent this past semester rigorously preparing for our trip and are anxious to bring all that we have learned here at Fordham into all that we see and do in South Africa. Speaking from experience (I was a member of the 2007 GO! Project to South Africa), this will be both an exciting and challenging project for all those involved. We will see many beautiful sights, meet many incredible people, and learn about many new and amazing things, but we will also be challenged constantly by the poverty and other hardships that many in South Africa face on a daily basis. Nevertheless, every experience will allow each one of us to grow in ways unimaginable, and for that, we are all very grateful.

We also know how fortunate we are to have this opportunity, so on behalf of the entire team, I'd like to thank you all for your support this past semester and in the weeks ahead. Whether it has been in a monetary donation or in the offering of words of wisdom, we appreciate all that you have given us and ask only for your continued prayers as we continue on this road that has been set before us.

So in closing (for now!), thank you for your support and encouragement! Get ready for an exciting journey ahead!

Love,

Roxanne and the 2009 GO! South Africa Team