Sunday, June 24, 2012

Good Things

The last few months seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Although I have to say that some big things have happened and are about to happen!  

Camp GLOW
I applied and have received a VAST Grant for a program called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World)! Camp GLOW is a program that was started by a group of PCVs in Romania in 1995. Since then Camp GLOWs have been held by PCVs all over the world – a lot right here in South Africa! The core idea is as relevant today as it was in 1995. I am absolutely, over-the-moon, totally stoked for this program! Our Camp GLOW will take place over five days of the October school holiday and will cover four main themes: HIV/AIDS and wellness, leadership, female empowerment, and personal development and growth. We will be taking 20 girls from our girls clubs out to the “bush” for the experience of a lifetime! With five local female counterparts, my PCV friend Sam, and myself – I’m confident we will be able to hold an outstanding camp and reach our four main project objectives.

I’m in the process of developing the full camp curriculum and I have to say that even though it’s an extremely long and detailed process – I’m absolutely LOVING IT. I have found that I really enjoy the development process and even though I didn’t think it was possible it’s making me MORE excited as I imagine us doing all the things I’m planning. The process has made me realize how grateful I am for my previous experiences and connections. Thanks to my work with LeaderShape and the Leadership and Service Office I have an endless amount of ideas for the camp – and also the most outstanding example I can think of – LeaderShape. If there ever was a leadership camp to aim to be even half as good as – LeaderShape is it. I also am just so grateful to the Leadership and Service Office at Illinois State and my old colleagues. On day two of the camp we will be doing leadership/personality assessments to find out “our style”. I needed something basic – with not too high a level of English. I wasn’t finding anything on the internet at all that fit the requirements (basic, easy, printable). With two emails I had 30 attachments of EXACTLY what I had been looking for! I’m so glad and I can’t wait to find out who in our group is a North, South, East, or West when we take the Personality Compass!

I can’t lie – I’m pretty proud that I have successfully written a grant. I just need to say a huge thank you to my Aunt Kelly, Aunt Pat, and my Mom! Their feedback, corrections, and suggestions helped me so much. Thank you! While I am so pleased that we have received this grant – there is still a lot of fundraising work to be done. I’ll be posting more about Camp GLOW as the weeks go by, but if you are interested in supporting Camp GLOW – please consider going to the following website and donating http://fnd.us/c/cJeG1. While the VAST covers the majority of our costs there was a cap on the amount of money we could request for food/lodging. Obviously four nights and five days of food for 26 people isn’t cheap! We are fundraising like mad-women in our community but need your help as well!  

Cape Town
I was given the best surprise last month when my good friend Michelle’s boyfriend Mark contacted me with a special idea. He wanted to surprise Michelle by bringing me out to Cape Town for a week that he was going to be away on business (talk about a great boyfriend!). I don’t ask questions when it comes to free travel so my answer was a very speedy – absolutely!

I had a blast in Cape Town hanging out with Michelle and just relaxing! It is a truly beautiful city. It’s the most dramatic, and unique looking city I’ve ever been to. With Table Mountain at the center of the city it’s breathtaking. My friend Michelle was working during the week but we still got to see and do a lot of cool things. The waterfront, beaches, wine country, shopping, eating great food – it was perfect! I really enjoyed the city, and can’t wait for when I go back in December with my PCV friends as well. We didn’t do a lot of the big things you do when in Cape Town because the weather is so much more ideal for them in December when I’ll be back (liking climbing Table Mountain!).

It was so nice to see my friend Michelle and get to hang out. She was in the process of moving into her apartment in Seaside and I was able to help her. We also explored her new neighborhood together which was so fun. And besides Chinatown in San Francisco I have NEVER seen so many Asian food restaurants on one short stretch of neighborhood! There were well over 10 in a matter two miles. I’m more than a little jealous.  

Visitors! Visitors! Visitors!
For the first time in over a year I’m going to have visitors to my site! One other PCV has seen my site – my friend Will and that was less than a minute when we got a ride back from PE together. This time they are here to stay! Recently I found out a fellow PCV will be visiting me for a few days which should be really fun.

My other visitors I have had a countdown for them to get here for months! In EIGHT DAYS my dear friend and “roomie-for-life” Allie will be arriving in PE! Two days after her Dani, my bestie from the Leadership and Service Office will be arriving! I can’t wait for all the adventures we are going to have! Having people visit me almost has me a little nervous and it definitely has me noticing all of the things I do daily that are so normal to me, but may not be to other people.  To name a few:

Taking 10 tries to unlock the back door – when I do nothing different at all…it just WON’T OPEN.
 
Having to use all of my body strength to close the refrigerator and lock it since the ice block in the back is so huge it makes the drawers stick out. Last night – I called my host sister and asked what to do because after - no joke - FIVE solid minutes of attempting and failing to close it I had given up. I let it open for a while, washed a few dishes and then managed to close it (that luckily is being fixed today though – we’re unplugging it and letting it melt).

Bucket baths. Enough said. This is going to be a time consuming and tricky process when more than just me needs to bathe…

My “chamber pot”, if you will. I'm sorry if this is TMI but once I’m locked in my room for the night – I’m in. So…I sometimes pee in a bucket. You might be wondering why I would do that. Well, this would be my process to go inside after I’m in for the night: Unlock room door, unlock burglar door, lock room door, unlock house door (which as I stated above can take me multiple tries), lock house door, go to bathroom, unlock house door, lock house door, unlock room, lock burglar door, lock room door. So – it’s just so much easier to skip all that. Especially when it’s dark and cold and I’m lazy.

My complete disregard or reaction to cockroaches/bugs. Although lucky for them it’s winter and the cockroaches go away for the most part. I haven’t even seen any in the kitchen lately which is pretty amazing.

That’s all I can think of now but I’m sure there are a million other things that are totally NOT “normal”, that I don’t even notice at this point. Regardless – I CAN NOT WAIT for them to get here and to share my PC life with them! It’s going to be such a blast! We have some really cool things planned – seeing Addo Elephant Park, visiting the National Arts Festival, seeing the local beaches, celebrating the 4th of July (that’s my request) with a traditional South Africa braai, and whatever else we can come up with!

Unfortunately for Allie and Dani who both love service and were looking forward to doing some projects with me – nothing is happening! All the schools are on a three week school winter holiday. That means that none of my programs are taking place as normal. Hopefully we will be able to do some fun things with the local youth regardless. I’m sure I can gather some kids – even if it’s just the neighborhood kids that always play at the park on my street. It will be great!

I’m looking forward to so many parts of Allie and Dani’s visit. I’m looking forward to sharing the most basic parts of my life, having people to talk to non-stop for two weeks that have the same context and references I do, and hearing what they have to say about South Africa. I’m looking forward to seeing familiar faces after a year and a half of new faces. I haven’t seen anyone that I knew before January 2011 in OVER A YEAR. That is such a bizarre realization to have. In addition to all these things - I’m most excited to introduce all the people that have been a part of my life for the last year and a half to my American friends! It’s going to be so much freaking fun!  

Fun Thing
I am the June Alumnae Spotlight for Phi Sigma Sigma! I was featured in their June newsletter Connections and my story is on the website! I was even on the homepage! : ) You can read my spotlight here: http://www.phisigmasigma.org/phisigmasigma/inaction/alumnaspotlight/profiles/alumna/AlanaMcGintyEpsilonAlphaChapteratIllinoisStateUniversity/.

As a parting reminder – please consider donating to Camp GLOW! If you could share the link to the page on your Facebook/email/twitter I would really, really appreciate it also – the more people know about it the closer I can get to my fundraising goal http://fnd.us/c/cJeG1. Huge thank you to my Uncle Rick - my first donor! : )  

“Live in the moment and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering!” -Crosby