Hello wonderful fellow bloggers! I am absolutely excited to join your online adventure documenting community!
I am new to all of this, so bear with me as I attempt to update you with all my wonderful travel challenges, accomplishments, and and escapades! What is the special occasion? Well folks I am pleased to announce that on June 1st I will be heading to BOTSWANA! Yes my friends, I will be heading to Africa!!! Now aside from what you’re all thinking, I’m not just hopping a plane and roaming around looking for elephants to ride…. I was lucky enough to accept an offer to be part of the Youth in Partnership Program with the Coady International Institute.
Just a little background info for you – The Coady is located in Antigonish, NS, right on the St. FX campus (where I did my undergrad). For all you keeners that want to know more check out http://coady.stfx.ca/. This internship is one of the reasons I was so interested in attending X, and to be honest it’s pretty incredible when your dreams do come true…although I definitely thought after grad it would be quite some time before I stepped foot in Antigonowhere again. However, flying back here (after a much needed week at home) I must say the town of Antigonish has definitely grown on me.
My official position with Stepping Stones – Life Skills and Sports Associate, has literally been tailed to my background and I am beyond excited to get started!While in Botswana I have the amazing opportunity to work with Stepping Stones International. This NGO works with and encourages orphaned or vulnerable youth to explore their interests to discover their own potential and provides them with the essential skills to cope with whatever life deals them.
Check out their home page – http://steppingstonesintl.org/
As far as logistics go I will be flying out June 1st and back to this beautiful winter wonderland December 1st.
That means 6 months of work, travel, elephants, new friends, experience and 6 months of BONDING WITH MY WONDERFUL TRAVEL BUDDY SHILA!!!! I am so so so excited and comforted by the fact I will be sharing this experience with this cool chick. So far we seem to complement each other amazingly, she’s got the all the meds and research down pat, and I’ve got the chill vibes goin, AND we both share an unconditional love of elephants (which we both hope to see a lot of!)
As far our lives until we hit the runway, 19 beautiful, life loving YIPPERS are joining me in the challenges and struggles of living in good old Mount St Bernard (somewhere I thought I would never step foot in again), living off questionable meal hall food…
Everyone here has been so amazing and friendly I can’t believe it… we’ve gotten along so well, it’s going to be tough to say good bye in a couple of weeks 😦 BUT we do still have a good 13 days together to fall deeper and deeper in love ❤ and each day is undoubtedly cherished.
So, in the new few months be sure to keep an eye out for my updates and pictures (not just google images, real pictures) of the our beautiful Botswana adventures!!!
Just to give you some visuals as to where we’re headed:
More specifically, we’ll be staying in the village of Mochudi, about 50 km from Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.
That’s all I got for you tonight folks! I hope you enjoyed my very first blog 🙂 I will be adding more in digestible chunks to keep it interesting.
Peace and love out there friends ❤
KateTraveling 