Hello From Exotic Delaware

They call me..Mr. Pig!

That is my favorite line from a little film called The Lion King. Maybe you've heard of it. It is what I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs when I found out that I got this opportunity to go to South Africa. This has been a long time coming. I've been talking about doing a volunteer trip to Africa for a couple years now but that was pretty much all I did. Here is a little back story about how I got to this point today.

Many of you know about my participation in an anti-genocide group in college that I started with Katie Smith and Kerri. This really sparked my interest not only in human rights issues in Africa but also a career in international development. Alas, I was almost at the end of my college tenure majoring in Finance. I got the job, made the money, moved into the apartment, got the promotion and life was good. I always knew, though, that this wasn't for me. I would sit by continuing with the way life was happening watching and being envious of people who were traveling and doing the different (Chris Regan, Billy Hafker, Carmen Sandiego) creating  life experiences. Mind you, I am extremely grateful for everything that I've received and achieved. I am extremely blessed to have a job when the economy was crap, a loving family and great friends. Mostly, I am grateful to have an understanding fiancee who pushed and challenged me to make a change. I finally got to a point where I decided to make it happen. I moved back home on January 2, 2012. I spoke to my very understanding and supportive boss, past and current (shout out to Todd and James) and quit my job on January 17. I did some searching, emailing, communicating and next thing I know, I have this opportunity.

The organization that I will be working with is called Child Care SA. It is located in a town called Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Feel free to Google/Facebook them. In exchange for my work I will get a house to stay in and food to cook. I leave on March 1 and will return on May 24. This trip will be a little less than 3 months long. Besides taking down dictators, blowing up militia camps and single-handedly bringing back the ape populations I will be working with youth to prepare them to be the heads of their households. This includes teaching personal finances, resume building and job/university searches. I have been told this is a new program so I'll have a big part in designing and implementing it. 

I was planning on sending out emails to whoever wanted to hear about my journey but was convinced to do this blog instead. Pictures, anecdotes, quotes, reflections are all sure to be included. I know this post is long but hopefully the future ones will be shorter. Whelp, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the posts to come.