The Countdown Begins!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my South African blog! I can't believe after over a year of thinking about this and months of planning, I am almost ready to take off! A few vaccinations and a visa approval is all that separates me from this new adventure. My trip begins September 5th from Detroit, then after a brief layover in Amsterdam I will be landing in Cape Town about 26 hours later.

For those that don't know, I was placed by a program called Connect 123 into an unpaid internship with an NGO (Non Governmental Organization) called Regency. http://www.regency.org/ Specifically, I will be helping with a project called HIV & Me, an HIV/AIDS education and prevention program targeting 12-15 year olds. My role will be doing project research and evaluation for the organization. It is estimated that 11% of the population in South Africa are HIV positive, and this country holds the highest infection rate in the world (20%). Programs like these need to be continually evaluated in order to ensure that the goal of infection reduction is being met.

I also plan on volunteering with Child Safe, a program that documents child accidents in Africa and creates education programs to prevent more harm to be done. My Connect 123 contact has offered to take me with her when she collects data for the program.

I have already google earthed my apartment there (yes, I know, a little stalker-ish but I was too excited!) and I am really pumped to be right down the road from the South African Parliment building, and only a few minutes walk from where I will be working. I also can not wait to explore Table Mountian and all the trails I'm sure are surrounding it.