Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

AAAAWWWWEEE I am so excited.  My first visitor, Olivia, is coming in exactly 1 WEEK!!!  To get another perspective of life here, she will be a guest on SOULjourner during her visit. To kick it off, I asked Olivia to share her perceptions of South Africa, what she is looking forward to doing, and why she is coming? Look forward to also hearing her joys, surprises, and of course travel pains and annoyances! 

Cheers!

--Mei

Olivia and Me at a UMES Homecoming!

To be perfectly honest, I have very little perceptions about South Africa.  I am a little ashamed to say, but outside of Apartheid, widely talked about tourist attractions like Table mountain (can't wait) and "Blood Diamonds" my knowledge is extremely limited. I actually never even thought about the country as a place to visit until a few years ago when a good friend of mine went for his honeymoon.  As a result of my friend, Meisha, taking a job, I felt this was a great opportunity to visit my friend and experience the beauty of this opportunity of a lifetime. You CAN'T imagine how excited I am to take this journey to another part of the world.  To date, I have never taken a trip of this magnitude! Outside of the Caribbean, I have only traveled to Iraq (a military mission) and Qatar (pleasure trip while stationed in Iraq).  The experience I had while traveling to these countries has opened my eyes to the beauty of countries outside of the US and the Caribbean. 

While visiting South Africa for two weeks  (Jo'Burg, Rustenberg, and Capetown) I plan to visit as many of the country's "must see" places, interact with my friend in her current element, in addition to meeting with teachers to discuss their teacher development programs!  I am very excited about that opportunity because it gives me an opportunity to share my experiences working with teachers with teachers in another country.  Hopefully we will all receive new ideas to take back to our respective schools to improve the instruction for our children. 

Meisha has talked extensively about the experiences that she has garnered while living in the community of Phokeng and I get more excited each day. I am looking forward to experiencing some of those in addition to developing my own.  Like a sponge, I am looking to soak in EVERYTHING I can possibly hold during this trip.  I would like to thank Meisha for giving me this experience of a life time.  Her free spirit has provided me and others (who will visit later) this magnificent opportunity.  In 7 DAYS {screaming}, I will be South Africa!!!

P. S. My plane stops to refuel in Egypt, despite all of the craziness there, I hope to get to see one of the 7 wonders of the world...so with that please pray for my safe travels. I look forward to sharing my experiences with everyone upon my return to North America!  

--Olivia