One week to go...

One week from today I'll be on a plane headed for Cape Town.

The last few weeks I have had the chance to speak to many groups about my Rotary scholarship. Part of the requirements for the scholarship is to make around 15 presentations about your experience before, during and after you return. I was able to speak to 2 Rotary clubs in Houston, and a Rotary club, a Lion's club, a PEO group, a Senior Citizen's group, and 4 high school classes here in Idaho. It is really wonderful to be supported so strongly both in Houston and in my hometown of Burley. I am very much looking forward to sharing my experience. My heart was especially in the presentations I was able to give to the high school classes, as it made me miss my own students in Houston terribly. It is SO important that students are exposed to opportunities early on, as I believe strongly that if they set high expectations for themselves, they will rise to meet them. I sincerely hope that this experience ahead of me can be used to open the eyes of at least a few students both in the U.S. and in South Africa to an opportunity they otherwise did not know exist.

In other news, I have been saddened deeply the last couple of days about the news of new conflict erupting in Kenya, and of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. It only renews my belief that our world is too small to not seek to understand one another.

On the lighter side, my last few days are filling up with last minute preparations, mainly tasks that I have put off for the last few months, like finishing my best friend's wedding present. :) I am all together avoiding my brand new empty suitcases, half hoping they will fill themselves.

I am also distracting myself with reading anything I can get my hands on, whether it is about South Africa or not. Today I began reading Kabul Beauty School, and although I haven't finished, I am recommending it to everyone - it is utterly inspiring, and I am only about 1/3 of the way through. It is the true story of an American hairdresser who is in an abusive marriage and decides to go on a medical missions trip to Afghanistan shortly after the fall of the Taliban. While she is there, because she has no medical skills, she ends up exploring Kabul. She discovers that nearly all beauty shops have been wiped out by the Taliban, and those which are still running have no supplies and the beauticians have little or no cosmetology education. Her skills are therefore actually in high demand, and she has people lining up to have their hair cut. After returning to the United States, she decides to open a beauty school in Kabul to train beauticians with the intent of empowering women and allowing them a means to support themselves apart from their husbands. It is so far a beautiful story and is being added to my list of 'must reads.'

Signing off with a week left -