on one, africa and never saying never

If you've been reading here for a while, you know that I've been a fan of and involved with The ONE Campaign, the advocacy group founded by Bono of U2 fame, and whose mission it is to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. I'm on the ONE Moms advisory board, and today I'm headed to Washington D.C., to meet with my good friends at The ONE Campaign. It's always great to connect with this amazing organization and everyone who is involved with the ONE Moms, and this trip is no exception.

You might also remember that last summer, I was a part of a team of 10 bloggers invited by ONE to see and share all the good things that were happening in Kenya (where I met my criminally adorable friend in the image above). This fall, a new, different team of bloggers is scheduled to journey to Ethiopia, and I am so thrilled and honoured and, frankly, gobsmacked that I've been invited to accompany them as the trip photographer. Ethiopia is place I've been dying to visit for a long time, even though I am admittedly pretty ignorant about the country. I do know that, interestingly, one of its former leaders, Haile Salassie, is the reason that Ethiopia is the spiritual homeland of a major Caribbean spiritual movement, Rastafari. From a geological perspective, I know that its largest lake, Lake Tana, is the source of the Nile. And I know that while the country endured a horrific famine in the 80s (remember that song with the questionable lyrics, Feed the World?), even though the Horn of Africa is currently in the throes of another devastating drought, because of improved resource management, Ethiopia hasn't felt the effects nearly as badly as, for example, Somalia has. Everything I know about Ethiopia leads me to believe it's an incredibly intriguing country.

That said, the facts above represent pretty much the sum total of everything I do know, a situation that desperately needs rectifying. So it goes without saying I can't wait to learn more, especially from a first-hand perspective. I'm so excited about this journey, and of course, I'll share more when we get closer to departure and I have more details.

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In other, completely unrelated news: several years ago I was a regular member of the online show Momversation, a video series where several parenting bloggers discussed various issues -- some serious, some not-so-serious -- through the lens of parenting. I haven't participated in Momversation for years, but recently, they've gone through a huge revamp of the site, and they invited me to participate in one of their newest episodes. I was happy to, especially since the episode included Ricki Lake (loved her in Hairspray), and the extremely funny Daphne Brogdon of Cool Mom, with whom I'd worked before, and who always cracks me up. In this episode, we discuss "never say never" moments: things we vowed we'd never do, and ended up doing them anyway.

For the record, I vowed that I would never let our child sleep with us. You can imagine how well that turned out:

With that, see you when I get back. In the meantime, please keep sharing those awesome #instacamp shots of the outdoors, my friends. I'll feature some of my favourites on Friday's post.

UPDATED: If you're so inclined, friends, here's a way you can help me and The ONE Campaign: please click the image of my sweet friend at the top of this post, to join me in helping bring about the beginning of the end of HIV/AIDS in 2015. It would be so great if we met our petition goals.

Thanks a bunch.

Song: Waitin g in Vain by Bob Marley. This is my favourite Bob Marley song in life.