MOZAMBIQUE, AFRICA HERE I COME!!!!!
Rewind.....this past month has been a roller coaster for me. I received my invitation May 3rd while celebrating food from around the world with my Culture Matters group at the Boys & Girls Club. I think they were just as excited as I was! A week later I graduated from Arizona State University, a feat that has taken me 8 years to do but I did it! Thank you all that supported and encouraged me to never give up! That same day I had to say goodbye to the kids at the Club. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. These kids have forever changed my life and I am grateful that they all allowed me to be a part of theirs! 3 days after that I hopped on a plane and said goodbye to Arizona, my home off and on for the past 8 years. Oh I forgot to mention that my 26th birthday was the day after graduation too. I was a busy girl that weekend!
So that brings me to now. Let me tell you what I do know...
1. I will leaving for my service September 24, 2013 and will be returning December 4-5, 2015.
2. I will be doing my pre-service training and living with a host family around the capital of Mozambique called Maputo and then I will be placed in a different community to do my actual service for 24 months.
3. I will be teaching secondary education, specifically science.
4. I will be learning Portuguese and that is Portugal Portuguese not Brazilian Portuguese!
Teaching will be my primary objective during my term of service but I will also be trying to accomplish a secondary objective...a satellite Boys & Girls Club! It is a project that will help support my primary objective but will also support the community as a whole. I have seen first hand what the Boys & Girls Club can offer youth and their families and it is an amazing organization! There are going to be a lot of differences but I am hoping to create it so that it operates under the same values and beliefs as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America but also operate under the culture and beliefs of the Mozambique community I will be serving in. The ultimate goal is to have a sustainable club that relies on its own community to fulfill the mission of "enabling all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens." I am lucky enough to have the support of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the East Valley, the Boys & Girls Club of South Africa, as well as some amazing individuals who work at the corporate level with Boys & Girls Club of America.
The next two years are going to be an amazing adventure and I look forward to all the experiences and opportunities that will come my way.
"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own." Goethe
