How it all began

The saying "Man plans and God laughs" definitely applies to how I ended up going to Africa. At the beginning of my senior year of college I had no idea where I was headed after graduation. There was the possibility of having a steady job, being married, going to grad school, heading to Argentina for a year or moving back home to figure out what in the World I was supposed to be doing. Africa wasn't even in the picture. Slowly my options, or what I thought to be my options, were crossed off. I definitely wasn't going to be staying at the job that offered me full time. I had decided that law wasn't the path I wanted to take after graduation and marriage was taken out of the picture. I wasn't panicking yet; there was still time. After a visit to see my brother I was almost sold and thought that attending Bible college for a year in Argentina was going to be my next stop. At about this same time talk of being accepted into Grad School came about as well. I still didn't feel that God was leading me strongly in either direction so I continued to look at different possibilities. A girl that I had met and friended was in Africa at this point and I asked her which program she was going through; she mentioned WorldTeach. I looked into the possibility of working with them and started to gather information on how and what it entailed. Living, working, and moving abroad is definitely not something that can be done last minute; even though I thought I could. I wasn't getting any closer to narrowing down what I would be doing after graduation and the months were still ticking. In February/March I began the application process for all three options. I submitted my application for Argetntina, wrote up all my essays and received all my reccommendations for Graduate School, and submitted all my paperwork for Africa and began to pray. I probably didn't do it the best way. I kind of put those three options out there and whichever one followed through I would pursue full speed. Each of them answered, but in their own time.

I hadn't really been hearing back from Argentina and I didn't feel like God was calling me in that direction. I have been questioned a lot as to why I didn't decide on a Spanish speaking country. I have a bachelors in Spanish, I have a father who speaks Spanish and work in a Spanish restaurant. I own books, videos and music in Spanish. I lived in Costa Rica for a year and still speak it fluently. Will I forget a few words? sure but I even found myself forgetting a few words of English after living abroad and coming back. But for me, it's like riding a bike. You never forget the language, I'll just have to remember the motions. Plus. the Latin American countries that I could have gone to didn't offer the opportunities to help that I have in Africa. In Namibia there is a HUGE need and I have a HUGE desire to try to meet as many needs as possible. So, needless to say, Argentina was out of the picture. My mom knows me so well, she called that one from the start because I didn't pursue it as diligently as I did Africa and grad school.

I had heard back from WorldTeach almost instantly. They wanted me to take part in a phone interview and send in a few recommendation letters. I scheduled it as soon as possible and submitted the letters right away. They informed me that because of my credentials and interview that they wanted to expedite my application and send me to work as soon as I graduated. I originally was scheduled to leave and start work the first week in June 2011. I definitely believed that I would be able to pull that off; yea right! But I'll get back to that decision.

I graduated college a year early. At Towson I was given a hefty scholarship for four years. Since I ahd graduated early I wanted to figure out some way to get my last year of my scholarship. Who wants to leave free money sitting around?! I was convinced that I could start Grad School while in Africa and have my scholarship pay for school and my student loans pay for my time abroad. I made myself crazy trying to figure out all of these classes and independent studies. It would have worked out that my first year of grad school would have cost me less than $5,000 with my scholarship; they agreed to give me my last year of my scholarship to go towards my Grad degree. I was set! I was accepted into the Masters of Social Science (Global Analysis Track) program, my scholarship was already applied and I was accepted and confirmed for Africa. I had my timeline set and God was probably just laughing at me. Graduation in May, Namibia in June and Grad School/Namibia for the year. I even went as far as to check to make sure I would have wi fi where I would be or at least an internet cafe within a bus ride. Do you know how crazy I would be to do that?! I finally realized it. I called WorldTeach to see if I could defer my departure until the next group left, which would be in December 2012. They agreed to that but! Originally I was only going for 6 months if I left in June. With this defferment I agreed to sign on for a year :). After prayer and list making, I decided that would be the best for me. I will be able to do so much more in a year and be there for my students the entire time. The summer finished out and it came time for me to head to MD to start grad school. After making more pros and cons lists; I love lists!; and thinking through what I had ahead of me I decided to not enroll for grad school this coming year and defer my enrollment until Spring 2014; I will be able to be accepted then. But, Towson isn't even where I want to receive my Masters so that worked out. There were way too many more cons than pros.

"Why Africa?" I have received this question so many times and all I can say is, "Why not?!". There were so many countries that were laid out for me to work in but my heart was set on Africa. Each position had different responsibilities and focus. Namibia has a focus on HIV/AIDs and teaching around the country. Namibia has a high death rate as a result of HIV/AIDs. Many contract the disease and do not even know how to prevent it. My job will be to come up with programs to educate them on the disease and teach them ways to not catch it. I have such a heart for the children of Africa. I am not going there with the expectation of changing the lives of an entire village but if I can go and help one child receive a better eduation and show love to the lost than my time there will be more than worth it. My students will be the leaders of tomorrow in Africa and God knows that Africa could use some help. I am well aware of the trials and hardships that I will be facing. Believe me I have read a lot of experiences of people who are there now and it isn't going to be all smiles and happy days. It will definitely be a challenge and stretch me more than I have ever been stretched before but I am so ready and willing to be used in any way possible. No one ever made a difference by sitting on their behinds doing nothing; this is my chance to help make a difference and as Nelson Mandela put it

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.