Hello South Africa

So I know that I got a little behind on my blogging from Europe, but I promise to add my entries as soon as I find time this Fall. I kept a journal the whole time, so really all it will take is the time to transfer it to my blog so I have a full online recollection of my travels!

In the meantime....I'm in South Africa!!!

I am currently sitting in our Port Elizabeth beach front apartment, overlooking the sunset on the ocean. I know...rough life right? I almost feel guilty writing about my past few days here because they have been an absolute adventure but don't really speak to the overall mission/reason I am on this trip...but we can get into that later.

How did it begin? Well, last March I was sitting in a Virginia Tech classroom with my professor, David Brinberg, as he was going over a few items about my upcoming trip to Lugano, Switzerland. After going through details like our schedule, some cost information and visa requirements he mentioned that he had been working with an NGO in South Africa with a marketing research project. He said there was an itty, bitty, minuscule possibility that he would be able to pull together a program with students from Lugano to continue studying abroad and assist him in his efforts. He asked if anyone would be interested in learning more—and here I am a year and a half later.

The program is 4 weeks, from July 4 to August 4 and is a mix of social marketing and community outreach. We are studying at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and interning at IMBEWU, an NGO in the township ten minutes away. I will explain more about our efforts as I encounter them throughout the month.

So just a quick catch up from the last time I wrote—we came back from Lugano on April 30. I got over the jet lag superfast and started work on the soonest day possible. I worked at Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia as their Marketing and Fundraising Intern. They kept me busy at 35+ hours a week preparing and organizing several donor and fundraising events throughout the summer. The mission of Habitat to prevent homelessness around the world and the basic model of volunteer manpower and corporate fundraising to reach out to undeserved populations by providing a hand up, not a hand out, was inspirational. I got to learn, from first hand experience, the challenges and triumphs of working in the non-profit arena and everyone I worked with were very supportive of my learning the ropes and trusting my input and ideas.

After about 8 weeks, I packed up in a half-day's time and brought way too much stuff with me on the 23 hours of travel time to Port Elizabeth, South Africa...on my 21st Birthday!