Volunteer Placement & Other Details

VOLUNTEER PLACEMENT
I finally found out exactly what I will be doing in Cape Town!! My volunteer placement will be in a day care setting. I am excited to get to have regular interaction with kids. My program coordinator said there will be a language barrier because the kids aren't taught English until they are in school(unless that is what their parents speak at home). Luckily the staff will speak English so I'm sure they can help me translate and of course I will work on learning how to speak their language.

TIME CHANGE
Cape Town is 7 hours ahead of us - so when it is 4:30p in Evansville it will be 11:30p in Cape Town. If you are interested in knowing what time it is there you can visit the website www.timeanddate.com/worldclock.

WEATHER
A lot of people have thought (including me at first) that it would be really warm and sunny this time of year in South Africa. It will actually be their winter season. Luckily that doesn't mean snow, but it does mean clouds and rain. Temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s.

FLIGHT
I am driving to Indy tomorrow to stay with my step-sister Nancy. She will be taking me to the airport (and picking me up) and letting me leave my car at her house (THANK YOU!!) My flight leaves at 11:00am (Indy time) on Friday, May 29th. I first go to JFK in New York and then I have an 18 hour flight to Cape Town. I have never been on a plane for so long so I am a little nervous, but I have my Tylenol PM, ear plugs and sleep mask so hopefully I will be able to rest. I will land back in Indy on June 26th.

I can't believe it is really time to go! I am very excited and I can't thank you all enough for supporting me on this journey. I am going to try and update my blog regularly so please continue to check for details of what I am doing.
Love,
Dena

Fellow Volunteers!

Last week I got a list of my fellow volunteers. There are 25 of us going at the same time. The Cape Town program is very popular! We have been emailing and connecting on facebook. It is nice to finally know who else is going - hopefully it will make things easier when we arrive. There are a couple of girls who are also "older" as we refer to ourselves. Most of the volunteers are still in college. We all have different backgrounds and are from all over including one girl in Liverpool.

I have found a few people who are on my same flight from JFK to Cape Town so I hope to meet up with them at the airport. I have a telephone conference next Tuesday so I will get even more info then. I can barely believe I have less than three weeks to go. Lucily I am sooo busy at work that I haven't had too much time to get nervous.