Hello Africa

South Africa has officially improved thanks to my entering the country. After a 15hour flight from Melbourne Itouched down in Johanessburg on Saturday the 29th at about 6pm. Unfortunately I don't have an adapter so I can't charge my phone, iPod, laptop, camera, hair straightener.

The Baha'i centre here is massive it has it's own bed and breakfast! I know prest off the hook. I will write a more extended post with pics n stuff when I get access to my laptop but his is it for the time being.

Bye

A week of goodbyes

The hardest part is saying goodbye to someone and knowing that it will be atleast 1 year before you see them again.

The last week has been full of goodbyes and with tomorrow being my last full day in Sydney the goodbyes will only keep on coming. On Saturday night I said goodbye to my wonderful workmates from Woolworths.

(more photos to come)

On Sunday I farewelled my kids in Minto who I've been teaching every Sunday for the last 1.5 years.







The next goodbyes were to my workmates at Sydney Uni; Kristina, Eric and my boss Andy and 2 of my good friends Olivia and Matt.



Today, however, contained some of the hardest goodbyes. Today I said my farewells to 2 of my best friends, the first was Britney and her mum Elizabeth...





And the hardest of all my soul mate, my closest friend, my rock, my support, my sister and my biggest fan Maha(Krystal).





I don't know how I'll cope with the next day and a bit having to leave behind my family, especially my little brother who I will miss more than anything, but it has to be done and I know that 1 year will fly and pretty soon I'll be back.

Explanation

In my haste to start ranting on about my life I forgot to explain what it is exactly that I'm doing.

I'm going to South Africa for what we Baha'is call a Youth Year of Service. I am a Baha'i (it's a religion) and all the youth in the Baha'i Community are encouraged to dedicate atleast one year of their lives to service to humanity. This can be in any form whether it be helping in one of the Baha'i Institutions like the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa, Israel, at one of the Baha'i Temples or in any one of the Baha'i Schools around the world or it can be community based service which is what I'm doing. In my case I join a community and help them build the capacity of that community. This can be done by establishing local community classes for children, junior youth and adults which aim to develop moral and spiritual consciousness through prayer and virtues.

So here's the plan, I arrive in Johanessburg on the 29th of May and hopefully someone will be there to pick me up from the airport and take me to the National Baha'i Office where I will be staying for the first few weeks. Whilst there I will most probably be helping out in whatever way I can and attending the two Socceroos friendly matches on the 1st and 5th of June.

On the 14th of June my big sister arrives in J'burg from Haifa where she has been serving for the past 2 years and she will stay for 2 weeks and we will attend the world cup together. Then, through consultation with the Baha'is in J'Burg, I will move to another community that I can help out and that is most likely where I will live for the remaining 10-11 months.

So at this point in time I don't know exactly where I will be living but it will all be revealed in this here blog once I find out.

FAQ- for those who don't know it means Frequently Asked Questions :)

Q. Are you getting paid?

A. No, it is completely voluntary

Q. How will you afford to live if you aren't getting paid?

A. Accommodation will be supplied, I will most likely be staying with a family and so food and shelter will come with the package but I have also been saving for this trip for some time.

Q. Why South Africa?

A. I've always wanted to go to Africa for service, I first inquired about going there in 2008 during Uni holidays but I was told that because I only had 2 months free that it would be better used serving in one of the islands around Aus and so I went to the Rowhani Baha'i School in Vanuatu instead. Now that I have more time I am fulfilling my first wish which was Africa and South Africa kindly accepted to have me.

Q. Are you scared with all the violence and the high crime rates?

A. Yes and no. I think that anywhere you go in the world you have to be cautious and careful otherwise you could get hurt. People are murdered, bashed, mugged, stabbed...etc in Australia too. Sometimes the media can over emphasize the violence in a certain place and this can lead us to form inaccurate judgments of a region (the same can be said for Campbelltown). I'm not ignorant to the fact that it could be dangerous but at the same time the Baha'i Community will be looking out for me and as long as I try to stay safe then hopefully I won't have anything to worry about.

Packing... sort of

So I started packing today and by packing I mean that I took all the clothes out of my wardrobe and threw them on the floor and then I stood at the entrance of my bedroom and stared at all the clothes before getting bored and going on Facebook.

It felt good, finally doing something towards preparation for this trip. I'm hoping that when my mum sees the mess tomorrow she will start cleaning it up and then my packing will be mostly complete.

I also got myself vaccinated which was horribly expensive, $115 for hep B and typhoid!!! and I got Swine flu which is free so I thought that was nice. Then my doctor told me he wished he could do something like what I'm doing to which I replied "I'm pretty sure you're rich and can afford to do it," he didn't disagree.

Yesterday I found out that a nurse isn't qualified to take blood. Insane I know

It takes a whole other course (about 6 weeks long) to become a blood taker person. Anyone can do the course and I'm thinking it might be my calling.

So I think I'll buy a camera tomorrow

2 weeks left

So as the title suggests I have 2 weeks left in the country. It's strange because I'm in this amazing denial about how soon I'm leaving. People keep asking me if I've started packing or have I got my vaccinations to which I continually answer "No, I've still got heaps of time"

NO I DON'T

wake up call to myself... 2 weeks!!!! ilsdhgfisjljcopiswe239qusjdf~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There has still been no progress on the things which I listed before but I have thought about them, and thinking about things makes you feel like there's been progress.

One thing I have done successfully is spend loads of time with my friends and I've noticed that when I'm driving or on the train I take much more time to notice and take into consideration the things around me with constant thoughts running through my head like "I may never see Panania station again" and "I should enjoy this moment being squished between so many people on the train because there aren't enough seats as I may never be on a peak time train again"

It's amazing the things you learn to appreciate when you're leaving.

Well that's it for now

Maybe I'll get my vaccinations tomorrow

Still somewhere in the beginning

With 24 days left before I depart I am now at the stage where the slight panic begins to set in as I realise just how much work I have to do before then and also "OMG!! I'm going to Africa" type realisations start to increase in frequency.

So where am I at now in terms of planning?

I have no visa

I have no clue as to what I need over there

I don't know if I need medical insurance or how that works in SA

Do I need insurance?

What's my address going to be?

I haven't got any of my vaccinations yet

I have managed to save up less than half of what I had hoped to save for this trip

I need to book a hotel next to the airport in Melbourne for the night that I am staying there

ok so clearly you can see that there's alot of stuff that needs to be done, now here are the things that are sorted

I have bought cool slippers for when it gets cold (which I am wearing now)

I have submitted my letter of resignation for Woolworths and my uni boss knows I'm leaving too

yeah so thats about it in terms of preparation but I'm pretty sure everything will come together before I leave

HOORAY FOR LIFE!!!!