It's official...South Africa here I come.

So for those of you that are unaware, I had a little "idea" a few months ago that I wanted to do something after finishing up my Masters but before entering the so-called real world. So after much Googling around I found an organization called Connect 123, and thought I would look into using them as a way to find a volunteer placement abroad. And since I've always wanted to go to Africa, I thought "Why not Cape Town?" After all, it's not like I've ever been there or anything...or know anything about the place...besides the name Nelson Mandela.

So after many back-and-forth e-mails with Connect-123, I finally got some good news. An organization called Bigshoes, based out of the Red Cross Children's Hospital, wanted me on their team. I mulled over the placement for a few days, moved out of Kansas City and came back to St. Louis in the meantime. After talking it over with my parents, I decided that I would go for it. And even though I am scared, I pulled it together and booked the flight. OKAY, truthfully, I was too nervous so I closed my eyes and made my dad push the button to purchase it.

I'm pretty excited though. Bigshoes is a NFP organization works to protect the rights of orphaned and vulnerable children while providing them with holistic healthcare and family and treatment interventions. They have a major emphasis on children affected by HIV/AIDS. And what would they like me to do, you say? Well I am going to be assisting in kick-starting monitoring and evaluation for them. Basically helping them come up with measurement tools within each of their program areas and designing program specific evaluating tools that they can eventually use for data collection and management. Now although to most of you that will sound utterly boring, for me it is a good fit and I think it will be a great learning experience. I'll spend four days a week at Bigshoes and on my day off I will be volunteering with the kiddos at the children's hospital. Good thing I am off on the weekends, because I'll say I have some decent scenery to explore:

Like going to Kruger for a safari...

Or taking advantage of the largest wine route in the world...

Maybe enjoying the beauty of some old Dutch architecture...

And in a city with 3.5 million people, I'm sure I can find a few things to do...

So now that I have booked my flight, I'm leaving on August 31st. What's that you say? That's only 2 weeks and 4 days away? Yeah, that's growing ever more real so I better get to preparing. Wish me luck! More details of this adventure to come...