The last few weeks have been great to recharge from school, and start cramming things into bags as I prepare for Malawi. This past week has been busy with saying goodbye to friends and family, grabbing a couple last minute things for the trip, and communicating with the other JFs and the Water and Sanitation (WatSan) team in Malawi. It sounds like folks in Malawi are nearly ready for our arrival, and I'm stoked!
At this point, feelings are all over the place. I'm feeling:
- excited about getting to Malawi to learn more about my placement, my new home, my coworkers, and my host community
- nervous about leaving all of the wonderful people in my life for 4 months. This will be hard, but in the end it will be positive, I'm sure of it.
- panicked that my clothes won't be appropriate enough for the business image that I will trying to present. It sounds strange - but this is on my mind. Image will be key in this placement - in more ways than one!
- NERVOUS! (again..) that my blogging skills aren't where I want them to be. I ask for your patience - I will get better at this, and there will certainly be more inspiration to write from about once we jump start this JF engine on Saturday! This is certainly an area of personal development.
With all of these thoughts in mind, I'm moving forward with open ears and an open mind. Here I come Toronto, ready to participate and learn! From April 30th to May 7th, the JFs going to Southern Africa (Malawi and Zambia) will be living and learning together in the EWB house. I can't wait to share thoughts and stories throughout the week!
Be well, and much love.
Kevin
Hey Kevin!
ReplyDeleteWhile I haven't been overseas or had quite the adventure that you're leading up to, I can relate somewhat to your pre-departure feelings. It's definitely tough going far away where you don't know anyone and leaving friends and family behind. I have now been in Vancouver for four months and not only have I survived, but I'm loving it! I think one of the hardest things, which is going to be much harder for you, is keeping in touch. You're off to a great start!
All this to say that I think you're going to have an awesome time and a great placement! I look forward to hearing more about your experience as you go through it. I feel that I've been really disconnected from the chapter this past semester and I've been missing out on hearing personally about what you and Spencer have been going through, so I've made a goal for myself for the summer: I'm going to check this blog once a week and aim to post comments every two weeks. Sound fair? I'll try to help keep you guys accountable to your goals and you can do the same for me.
Happy packing!!!
Lauren
Hey Lauren,
ReplyDeleteThis is excellent! And yes - it sounds more than fair. Having you hold us accountable for our goals is something that's going to be really helpful. We've had a few sessions where I've started to develop personal development and chapter contribution goals for the summer, and I'm excited to share those soon.
I look forward to sending the chapter an email once I arrive in Malawi. I'd also love to hear about your goals for the summer, and I'll certainly do my best to keep you accountable. It would also be really helpful to connect with the Education, Advocacy, and Core teams to see if there are any topics of interests or resources that I can explore for them over the summer. It's my hope that this will happen during the first or second week that I'm there.
Thanks for connecting with me, Lauren! :-)
I hope you're loving the west coast.
Kevin