So, why am I blogging you ask? Well, I am moving to Bamenda, Cameroon, Africa for 6 months.
I applied and was accepted on a Coady Institute Youth in Partnership CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) internship. I am pretty amped, to say the least. My position is an 'Entrepreneurship Development Associate' with the Youth Outreach Program (or Programme, still unsure of the spelling, it is different everywhere I look). As soon as I saw this placement posted it caught my eye, and it was my first choice for placements, so I am very excited. A large part of my role will be working with youth in facilitating entrepreneurship training, connecting with local schools with entrepreneurship clubs (like a way less extreme version of SIFE I presume), a little marketing, and some organizational strategy stuff which I really enjoy.
To be honest, I was pretty surprised I got the placement. My interview did not go well from my perspective, it took 50% longer than it was supposed to, and I didn't get out any of the points that I wanted to. But luckily, all of my ramblings must have shown that my heart was in the right place, and I would be a competent choice. I was also told that my references had really great things to say about me; so Neil, Elaine, and Greg, I am so very, very blessed to such wonderful individuals such as the three of you in my life. Thank you so very much.
Obviously, moving to Cameroon for 6 months isn't something that happens everyday (#YOLO), so I very lucky that Shila (http://shilaandbotswana.blogspot.ca) and Steph (get a blog) are also embarking with the Coady YIP program to Botswana and Ethiopia, respectively. It is nice to have other people to talk to about things that are in the same boat, even things like "what kind of malaria meds are you taking?" or "hiking pack or suitcase?", or most importantly "what are you doing with your x-ring while you're away?". For everyone in Halifax, we are having a joint going away party the evening of Saturday, May 11th, location TBD.
So my timeline you ask? Leave St. John's around the 9th/10th of May, stay with my dear friend Olwyn until the 12th or so, and then head up to Antigonish for orientation which commences on the 13th. I will depart around the 30th of May for Cameroon, and stay there until the end of November/ start of December. Once back in Canada, I head back up to Antigonish for a couple of weeks of debrief, and get back to St. John's a couple of days before my birthday.
I am pretty much feeling every emotion at once; but overall, equally petrified and excited. I depart in exactly 6 weeks, and only really have one more week to prepare to head out because of spending time with friends, various appointments, and popping up to Ontario to say farewell to my sister for a couple of days. There are so many people I want to see, and so much I need to do. So, I will do what I always do, get a sheet of graph paper, and treat my pre-trip preparations as if I was managing it as a project; I guess I really did learn something in school.
All my love,
Maura
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