20 hour plane ride later

After a whirlwind last week in the U.S., I got on a plane headed for Amsterdam last night and arrived in Cape Town about 20 hours later.  

Expecting a long, boring plane ride where I’d be charged for everything I did, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movies in the back of the seat in front of me were all free and they even passed out free headsets.  However, trying to be nice on the second flight, I traded seats with a husband so he could sit next to his wife…turns out the TV screens in the row I traded into weren’t working for the whole flight.  I ended up sleeping most of the way anyway and was able to get a little bit of pre-internship reading and writing done.  

Also prepared to avoid the $8 plane food, my mom packed me about 10 pounds of food and it turns out, every time I woke up from a nap, they were handing me more free food (on the second flight, we even got ice cream!).  Just when I thought I’d have an opportunity to squeeze in a snack from my own bag, they’d show up with another meal!

For some reason I expected people to be speaking English in their conversations here but people only speak English when they’re talking to me…which makes me feel bad since I’m used to traveling to countries where I can communicate in the local language.  I thought it would be easy coming here since I have no anxiety going to Guatemala anymore.  It’s quite a bit different than I expected though I’ve only seen it in the dark so far. 

Staying at the Green Elephant Backpackers tonight.  The staff are friendly and they use grey water from the washer to power two of the toilets so I like that already.

http://www.capestay.co.za/greenelephant

Headed off to Cross Cultural Solutions in the morning where I can settle in for the next 12 weeks.

Will post more once I know more!

I'm off again!

I'm headed off on another summer adventure! This time, to two destinations including a new continent for me--Africa!

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I will spend the first 12 weeks this summer as an intern with Cross Cultural Solutions in Cape Town, South Africa. This is my second field placement for my Master's program. I will help with their program evaluations and other work that needs to be done in the CCS office. I'm looking forward to this experience because I am particularly interested in the impact that international service has on volunteers and hosting communities. 

 

Outside of my internship, I look forward to waddling with penguins, swimming with sharks, and going on a safari!

My mailing address in Cape Town will be: South Africa Mailing Address: Cross-Cultural Solutions-Post-net Suite #3 Private Bag XII Mowbray, 7705, CT, South Africa 

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Then, at the end of July, I fly directly to Guatemala to study Q'eqchi' in Coban for 6 weeks, supported by the U.S. Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. This new language will allow me to better communicate with Sa Nima's community partners and will help me as I prepare a Fulbright Fellowship application to evaluate volunteer impact in Guatemala next year.

 

I'll be studying at Muqb'ilb'e School (http://www.spanishschoolscoban.com/) during the week and visiting Samox on the weekends.  I also hope to start to meet some potential NGO partners for my Fulbright research next year and maybe sit in on some social work classes at Universidad Rafael Landivar.

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Post a comment with your address and I'll send a postcard your way!