What a Great Day

The past few days..my life has been amazing

Things are finally coming together for me, in the kind of organization that I am use to. Busy all the time, a lot of important stuff going on, and feeling in somewhat control of it. I am really enjoying it. To start I am leaving Cape Town on Monday and going to Windhoek Namibia. I will spend two days there, where I will pick up the bag I left over 4 months ago and go to home affairs to finally get my Visa. Then on Wednesday I am driving to a small diamond mining town, where I am going to give a site visit for a new possible partnership for Grassroot Soccer. I will stay the night in the coast town of Swakomund. Then on Thursday or Friday, I will head up to Northern Namiba and start preparation for the project there. I will be in the North for 5 weeks, where we will hold two week long trainings.

I created a map on google maps to show you where all of these different places are. Just click the link below. You can zoom in and out on it to see the different areas…

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&view=map&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Cape+Town,+Western+Cape,+South+Africa&msa=0&msid=111352366795340182163.00047e16188f51931aba3&ll=-20.228717,15.805161&spn=29.726633,56.513672&z=4

I am also spear heading a big project to take place in Cape Town, from April 5^th -11^th, titled Girlz got Skillz. We are having girls from Northern Namibia, the US and some from South Africa participate in a week long cultural exchange. This exchange will focus on increasing leadership and self-efficacy in regards to HIV/AIDS prevention and to help instill that these girls can make choices (friends/organizations that they can belong too) that can help them create an environment that will lead to success. Therefore, not becoming a product of their environment. This is becoming an amazing event and something I am really excited about. I am helping design and will be running the programming for the event as well as organizing a lot of it. This kind of work, is right up my alley.

As things get more organized with both projects I will keep you updates and pictures..(I promise)One of the neat projects of Girlz got SKillz is that the participants are going to doan Amazing Race Cape Town. In this, they will go all over Cape Town, take pictures, have a scavenger hunt and get to see the city. However, instead of just running around taking pictures, each group will have been given a female in South Africa's history, who was a leader, overcame obstacles and had an influential role in SA and try and tell their story through the places they see and pictures they take. One of the nights where all of the girls are staying, we will have each group share their adventure. This is going to be so neat.

We are also having a soccer tournament at the end of the week. Part of this tournament will be the Call to Action Festival. We are going to ask organization that support women in the community set up booths where people can walk by and get information from an organization of a service they might need. I am excited to see how the "Carnival" type atmosphere goes over here in Africa.

All of these projects are in the early stages, but my job is to organize everything. I am really working on my delegation skills and am handing over some pretty big jobs to other interns. But I am excited to see what different ideas they bring to the table.I will keep you posted as the ideas develop more, I am just so thankful to have them on paper and start checking activities off. The next few months, time is going to fly by!!

Also, I just found out that it looks like I will be in Johanasburg for the World Cup, which is what I wanted to be doing. I know this is a vague taste of what I have coming up, but I will have a lot of pictures and new adventures to share in the next couple of months to come.

Sarah