2 days.  

2 days until I leave for Zambia.

I can’t actually express how quickly the past few months have gone. For those of you just tuning in, I’ve spent the past number of months living in Colorado with friends while working full time for SpanAfrica. It was a bit of a dream job – do what you’re already doing; take away other work distractions; and save up for school all at once.  I remember watching the clock New Years Eve, just as all my plans began to form together, and as midnight struck the second hand seemed to move a little faster. And already it’s been a fast year.

As transient as the past while has been – it gave me the chance to make some new friends, and catch up with some old ones. No, I never got to see everyone I wanted, nor did I get to spend the proper amount of time with anyone. But I’ve been so thankful for seeing everyone I did get to. I’m sitting here, back momentarily in Toronto, having taken over my brother Tim’s desk, to write a start-off blog; trying to piece together all that is coming. 

The bare details for my upcoming life chapters (which really is as detailed as I can be right now) are that I’m heading to Zambia until mid-July, spending time with our (SpanAfrica’s) Regional Director Kenneth Kasweshi there, taking in the flavors of Ndola and getting some programs started there. 

My good friend Amos, who I lived with in Kenya last year, is flying down for a brief visit so we can get some serious brainstorming and planning accomplished. I’m so excited to see him again! If I can’t get back to Kenya for a visit, this is definitely the next best thing. Amos is working with us as well – and it’s so great to have him on the team.

I suppose I shouldn’t spend this blog looking back, though I think my nostalgic thoughts of the past few months are rivaling my growing excitement for new travels. Hiking Colorado parks, strolling the Vancouver seaway, picnicking alongside the Ottawa River, reading horror stories by firelight at the cottage, running around downtown Toronto, and all of the cups of tea I’ve had all along the way. I think the past few months have really prepared me for everything I’ve got coming, (haha – yes, I said ‘I think’).

As I’m also starting schooling at Stellenbosch in South Africa, I’m also packing for my new chapters there. I’m being picked up from the airport by Tannie Kotie (yes, I already have an adopted aunt). I can’t say I know too much as to what to expect. Actually – I really don’t have much of a cotton pickin’ clue. But it’ll all work itself out, as it already seems to have.I know blogs are supposed to be much more ‘about the moment’, and here I am, reminiscing of all I’m coming from, and daydreaming of all the uncertainties to come. But maybe this will suffice for a start off. 

I promise exciting nit-picked details of everything to come. Maybe I’ll visit the Congo (like Tintin or Stanley); maybe I’ll fjord the Victoria Falls. I have overdosed myself on inoculations and  malaria tablets (I do not plan on getting sick ONCE). 

Similarly, I do not intend to spend afternoons with Zimbabwean terrorists, sit through civil war, hang out past government curfew, contract any new exotic disease (actually, I don’t think there are any NEW diseases for me), but I also promise no repeats. The rest is yet unwritten. 

Sunscreen and sketchpad in hand, I am off.

 Your friend,

Cam