I Made It!

First I have to say that I lucked out and got an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me for my 17 and1/2 hour plane ride from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg (Joburg)! What are the chances? Yesssss I got the empty seat, which is currently housing a pile of books, magazines, and extra pillows. Oh, and I just learned that I am stopping over in Senegal. Cool, it would be even cooler if I could actually be in Senegal and not just in the Dakar airport. I have been blessed by a nasally snore from the woman two seats to my right, a group of American tourists ready for their safari in Kruger National Park to my left, and a tv stocked with plenty of movies I have never seen. I have the goal of watching at least four; 1 down, 3 to go. Guess what? That will only take up 8 hours of my time, leaving me with 9 hours for this and sleeping. Peeerrrrfect.

As I sit here wrapped in two blankets, wearing two pairs of socks, and sipping my after dinner tea, I wonder exactly how I got to this moment in my life. How did I find this opportunity and how did I get myself on this plane headed to other side of the pond? For so long this has just been something I just talked about and it sounded cool, who knew it would actually happen! I am not going to lie; today has been quite an interesting rollercoaster. I woke up with the far-to-familiar anxiety attack that only disappeared after I began my journey to the Boston airport, revisited me in the Washington-Dulles airport, and disappeared soon after I boarded plane numero dos. I have also been enjoying a nice cocktail of sadness, excitement, nervousness, fear, happiness, disbelief, belief, concern, moments of no emotion, and a single TEAR. It happened. And people think I am an emotionless, soulless person. Maybe I just have too many emotions to show them on my exterior self.

I know you all like to hear about how packing and fighting with my mom went, but I don’t have much to tell you. I did it myself this time! Crazy, maybe I really am growing up. It was definitely a process, but it always is and I always get it all done. How? This is something I will never understand. Camp ended on a positive note, It was a little crazy at the end saying goodbye to all my campers, packing for a year, and then saying goodbye to all of my awesome friends all in less than 24 hours. But, per usual I am on to the next thing. Now as I listen to my iPod I think of all the awesome memories that correspond with these songs. I spent another summer running around playing all day with some pretty cool people and I got paid for it; no complaints here.

If you has asked me 10 years ago what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said architect without a second thought. 6 years ago? Interior designer. 4 years ago? Feisty corporate ladder climber. 2 years ago? Professional traveler, also known as Samantha Brown. Getting closer…and last semester? I decided I was moving to South Africa for a year to do HIV/AIDS prevention work with an organization called Grassroot Soccer (GRS). Where did this come from? Several hours of research on the computer. I had zero idea I wanted something like this until it popped up on my screen. So lets go with it.

This needs to be clarified: I AM NOT A SOCCER COACH and I will not be a soccer coach. At orientation in Hanover, NH last weekend we decided to write out a sentence that gave the idea of what we were going to do because so many people are so confused by the idea. I will quote this, but I did write it. “GRS is an organization that uses a participatory curriculum coached by community role models to educate youth on HIV/AIDS.” Believe it or not, there is actually not a lot of soccer involved. The curriculum involves a lot of dancing, a lot of energizers, stories, discussion, and games that sometimes involve tennis balls, frisbees, and on occasion a soccer ball. In all of this craziness, I am the person that makes sure that this all happens, by filling out paperwork, monitoring sites, keeping an eye on our program budgets, etc. Oh yea and driving stick on the other side of the road. No big. There are programs in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia. There are 4 interns in Lusaka, Zambia, 4 in Port Elizabeth, S.A., 2 in Lesotho, 7 in Cape Town, S.A., 2 in Kimberley (me!), 3 in Soweto, Joburg, 1 in Malawi, and 1 more in Eastern South Africa.

So for all of those who asked me where I live…now I live in Kimberley, South Africa. More to come after I charge the computer. Stupid Apple batteries.