About This Blog & Botshabelo

As a social work graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, I will be traveling to South Africa for four months for my final field placement at Botshabelo Community Development Trust. I am so excited to meet this challenge and apply what I have learned to a community in the country where a career in social work first occurred to me four years ago. Follow me, my adventures, and learning in my last semester of graduate school here on this blog!

Founded in December 1990, Botshabelo Community Development Trust, Magaliesburg, is a rural community made up of a school, orphanage, medical clinic and village. We care for children whose families can't afford to care for them and those orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Some of our children are living with HIV as well. Our philosophy is to help anyone who needs it, regardless of background or age. We can't turn away anyone who comes to us for help, whether they are an adult, a child, or even an animal. As a result, our village is now home to about 1,000 men, women and children, plus a few dogs, cats, and snakes.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to the first post on my blog! I'll use this space to record my experiences over the next four months as I prepare for departure, travel through southern Africa by overland truck, and, most importantly, at my final field placement working with children and adults affected by HIV/AIDS in the Botshabelo Community Development Trust in Magaliesburg, South Africa.

I'll fly out of Austin the week after Christmas, stop over in London, then arrive in Cape Town the morning of New Year's Eve! I'll either find myself a party or ring in the new year old lady style with a summer sunset concert in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, perhaps the single most beautiful place on this entire planet of earth. Regardless, I'll have a few days to revisit my favorite places in Cape Town and you can bet money a good chunk of that will be in the gardens. Maybe a hike on Table Mountain . . . Maybe a day at the beach to enjoy the southern hemisphere's summer . . . Or maybe I'll catch a kombi van out to Hout Bay and Imizamu Yethu to check back in on my old haunts from my volunteer placement four years ago . . . I can't wait!

 The next phase of my adventure will be a 25-day overland truck camping safari departing from Cape Town, then traveling through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, before ending in Johannesburg, back in South Africa. Pieces of the itinerary will take me back to other destinations I've been before, such as Victoria Falls, but a lot of it will be brand new! For this portion of my trip, I may post occasionally, but I will be doing my best to unplug as much as possible so I can relax and enjoy the experience before the beginning of my internship. If nothing else, I may post some highlights and photos after the trip is over . . . We shall see.

 Anyway, after the tour ends in Johannesburg, the folks from my placement will pick me up and drive me out to Botshabelo for the start of my internship. If you'd like to learn more about the community and the kind of work I'll be involved with at my placement, you can watch the beautiful and touching full documentary below (or just get a taste with the trailer):

You can also peruse the links I've included at the bottom of the page on the left to connect to Botshabelo's website, the UT School of Social Work's page about international social work, etc. Soon I'll also add a new link to a fundraising page I'm working on to help offset the costs of going abroad for my final field placement.

Until my departure date, I'll be preparing for Christmas with my family and tying up loose ends. Apart from packing and getting my departure packet all organized, the only big stressor left is waiting for my passport to come back in the mail with my visa approval from the South African Embassy. There was a pretty big scare on that point yesterday, but all is well and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed until my passport is back in my hot little hand!

Thanks so much for following my blog and be sure to check in regularly for updates!
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Location: Austin, TX, USA

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