The Trip that Fell in My Lap

Hello! Welcome to my travel blog. As many of you know, I am beginning my summer vacation with a May term study abroad experience in Cape Town, South Africa! I will be there for a total of three weeks and leave this Sunday, May 25th. This blog will be my opportunity to share with you my experiences and insights to South African culture and life. In addition, I hope to use this blog to help process my surroundings and experiences while abroad so I can fully learn, change, and grow as a person. While three weeks is a short time in the grand scheme of things, I know that this trip has the potential to change my life for the better.

I’d like to think that I am extremely blessed to have this opportunity to travel to Cape Town; I call it “The Trip that Fell in My Lap.” One day in back in February of this year, I was sitting in my Leadership class chatting with some friends when my instructor, Mandi, directed my class’s attention to a guest speaker. This person’s name was Aaron. He visited my class to talk about a trip that he was leading to Cape Town, South Africa to examine leadership in a global context. There were only a couple of spots open on the trip so if anyone was interested, we were supposed to contact him with further questions. After meeting with Aaron, I knew that I had to seize this opportunity that fit perfectly into my academic schedule. And now an application and two pre-departure meetings later, I am just two days away from embarking on a trip that will take me the furthest away from home that I have ever been.

Besides the amazing travel opportunity, I am very interested in the course subject. The class is called “Cross-Cultural Leadership Contexts of the AIDS Pandemic.” Basically, we will be taking a deeper look into how leaders in Cape Town handle and persevere in their mission to help people with HIV/AIDS. This involves meeting and talking with leaders in the city and getting first-hand experience with people who live in Gugulethu, a township outside of Cape Town.

Sounds stellar right? I know. This is going to be an amazing trip. However, right now I can’t help but be more nervous than excited. The traveling part of the experience has got me more nervous than someone about to sky dive for the first time. I’ve never traveled more than two hours away before, much less internationally by myself. The flight from John F. Kennedy airport to Johannesburg is 18 hours. That’s right, 18 hours! (This does include a stop in Dakar, Senegal to re-fuel our plane). My biggest fear at this point is losing my passport or other important travel documents, since I tend to misplace items easily. I will be constantly checking to make sure I have them. Another concern I have is in regards to the travel alert issued for South Africa. While I have been re-assured and have taken the appropriate steps to be safe, I still can’t help but have that twinge of fear in my heart. However, I think that it will keep me alert while I am abroad so that I can have the best experience possible. I take solace in the fact that this trip has been carefully coordinated and that the proper measures have been taken to ensure the safety of me and my fellow classmates. And even though I am so scared, there is nothing that can keep me away from Cape Town!

Today, I finally finished getting all of the supplies that I will need while abroad (though I will have to make one last run to the store to buy earphones for my I-Pod). By the end of tonight, I will be packed and ready to go. I still can’t believe it! A week from today, I will be writing in this blog half a world away from home. Stellar! So keep checking my blog over the next three weeks as I will be documenting my experience in Cape Town through pictures and words; I will be writing as often as possible. My next post will be from Cape Town! Until then...