Dear girls,

With only two days left before I leave for Tanzania, I search my heart to see... How I am really feeling about all of this? And while I am likely a bit stressed, the truth is, I can only locate (in this moment) feelings of abundance and gratitude... and a corner of apprehension about about the tremendous responsibility I carry.

What's most amazing to me about this journey is that it all really started just about 6 months ago with a dream. A vision. An idea in my head. As you know I did indeed try for a short while "sell" my idea of "participatory philanthophy" to a few other groups... driving all over the East Coast, sending out proposal after proposal. But thankfully they didn't see it as I did ... or perhaps they just didn't think it possible (especially in my accelerated time table!). Ultimately, I am grateful that I ended up "going it alone" to form UNITE The World With Africa as my umbrella organization under which to do this work. Boy did I stress out about that decision! But in the end I hope that through my example (leaving out  the stressing part, of course) you girls will learn that you truly can create anything your heart desires -- with many thousands of hours of hard -- and often tedious -- work and, of course, the support of an army.

So let's talk about that army. On the morning of January 1, 2010 -- before UNITE was even a real legal entity -- your beloved Aunt Kim (we will come back to her later) and our new friends Meg & Alyssa Domino and Jacqueline Abbot committed to coming on this tour. Their commitment gave me the courage I needed to officially press the "Go" button. I figured that even if we were only a team of 5 we could still mobilize gifts and do some kind of impactful work on the ground. I then reached out to secure my non-profit partners in Tanzania. Peter Luis at IEFT (www.ieftz.org) was terrific, as he always is, and on board straight away. As you know, your dad and I visited him at his Orkeeswa Secondary School for the Maasai in 2008 (pictures of his students are all over the house!) and then I returned to Orkeeswa with my first team of Americans last summer in 2009. Vivian Unterweger -- director of Friends of WEECE (The Women's Education & Economic Centre of Moshi) was my next call. She and I had met only once in Boston last fall at a fundraiser friends and I threw for IEFT. Vivian, God bless her heart, was so game and willing right from the beginning. I don't think she could ever imagined the tornado that was coming her way in the form of Anne Wells, but she has been a great sport about the entire thing and she has given me her complete partnership and support... for which I am eternally grateful.

With a small team assembled and my Tanzanian partners in place, the next step was to grow the team to diversify skill sets. So I lliterally talked and talked and talked to dozens of interested people about every last thing under the sun (as it relates to travel and work in Tanzania and sometimes also about life, love and the pursuit of happiness) and finally... many months later... my final team was set. And now in just two days, 18 of us will travel together 7,000+ miles to the other side of the world (literally and figuratively) to work, play, study, share and learn. The person who I pursued the most was my dear friend Dr. Teresa Knight. Katharine -- she delivered you by C-section now 5 years ago! I cannot believe how quickly the time has past. Girls as you may remember, Teresa and I started working on a book together in St. Louis before we away in 2007. It was called "The Naked Truth, Your Body Through the Ages." Even then -- Teresa reminds me now -- I talked about how I really wanted us to take this insightful and informative -- yet conversational and digestible -- women's health guide (all about the ovaries and how they change and wreak havok on our lives over the decades) to the women in Tanzania. I was envisioning a platform through which Teresa could empower rural tribeswomen with the truth about their bodies. How brilliant would that be if they could truly understand how their bodies work and subsequently how to PROTECT themselves from illness, disease and even violence and abuse. (The truth is most women in the U.S. don't really understand their own bodies, especially when it comes to hormones and perimenopause! Including me Today, Teresa and I are leaving together to do that work... Another dream comes to fruition. [God BLESS you Teresa for taking this leap of faith with me and for your endless hard work and dedication. You are a brilliant doctor, surgeon -- and most importantly WOMAN and mother -- like no other. I am honored to stand side-by-side with you as we embark on this journey.]

I could go on and on about my amazing and incredible and multi-talented 2010 team -- and I absolutely will in time as this Blog evolves and continues -- but for this moment, which is quickly coming to a close (because Katharine you are hanging over my shoulder , I want to talk about your Aunt Kimmy. She, along with your Dad -- who will be a separate blog in and of himself -- has been THE steadfast rock and support structure for me throughout this entire journey, which really began two years ago when your Dad and I traveled to Tanzania to scout out this vision.  She traveled with me last year to help me lead a MUCH more complicated team and at a time when everything was new and more intimidating than it is today. She stood by me when I was sick and traveled places we would never want to go to ensure I got well. She has listened to every up and down I have experienced (and those number in the hunrdreds of thousands for sure!) She has put herself out there mind, body and spirit on behalf of our friends in Tanzania. She has mobilized tons of interest and frankly tons of money. She has invested her time, her expertise, her money, her network, her heart and soul in to making sure we bring everything we can to those in need -- and in making sure I am taken care of. [God bless you Kimmer. You are LOVED and you are ADMIRED and you are SO appreciated!!!]

Every day of this process has brought a myriad of new challenges, successes and disappointments. Even this morning I received an email from Tanzania saying the driver of the 400 bed nets we purchased has been driving around for two days looking for the drop site in Moshi. So I am emailing him back numbers and addresses and trying to give directions for a place I personally have never been! Yesterday I am texting back and forth with Francesco (a good friend who runs the luxury safari company Tanzania Safari (www.tanzaniasafarico) who is literally now in the Serengeti, and we are bickering over whether or not his clients should fly or drive out of the bush in three short weeks... And then I receive word from Moshi that we have a "winkle" ... the kids are out of school in Tanzania so we have no classrooms full of kids as we had planned (in dozens of email communications over the past 3 months!), so now they are working to wrangle up 200 kids and their families to attend our trainings. And the list goes on and on... But as it always is with Tanzania, chaos may reign (or at least what we Westerners would perceive to be chaos) but love is the champion and somehow, some way everything always (or almost always) works out just fine. People in my experience don't hold grudges, they flex with the wind, they show up strong and kind and with great attitudes of hope, faith and possibility.

At the end of the day for me, this is why I am leaving you -- my three precious babies -- in just a few days for two short weeks. I am leaving to be inspired. I am leaving so that prayerfully I will absorb some of the powerful and almost palpable spirit that resides in the people and the land of Tanzania. They may not have the "stuff" we do ... but they have FAITH, a powerful sense of family and community, hope, and a remarkable and admirable ability to endure and perservere. They are courageous -- they give their truths purely and freely. David once said to our friends Joe and Kelly Sequenzia -- "They have nothing to give, so they give everything... they give themselves." And he was right. That is our lesson. I go to Tanzania so that I can be inspired to be a better human. To be generous -- in every way. To care about the plight of the world and the suffering of others. To LOVE with a vengence. Those are the gifts I want to give to you as your mother... Thank you my loves for allowing me this opportunity. Thank you David for allowing me this opportunity. Thank you for your endless love and support -- you never waiver. You never question. You never doubt. You jump in and out as I need you to. And now you stay behind to allow me to go.... Wow! I love you!

Bye for now. I will write more from Tanzania, and hopefully we will have a connection so those updates will go "live." We shall see...