Meeting and the Result!

So I had my meeting with Joanne today to go over all of those questions that I was waiting to ask about how I was chosen for my placement in the Ukraine. I went through my process with Joanne and explained how I had felt and how I am feeling now (awkward/excited!) and she told me about how my reaction was exactly what she expected... I think it is funny that through a short reflection of ones self that ones opinion about something can change so fast. Because now Africa is a past thought, although I would still love to go there and that experience would be amazing, there is a reason I am going to the Ukraine and now I am saying "BRING IT ON BABY!!!" .. ohh the excitement is building, the anticipation, the fear, the wonder, the nervousness, all of these other emotions that I wasn't having with Africa, all I was was excited for Africa... but the Ukraine, I get to learn another language in the actual country, how cool is that?! Pretty cool! I get to live with a family and see the smiles of so many children... oh yay! It is evident that I am now embracing all of these new challenges! 

The adventure of the Ukraine awaits!!!

Random Act of Kindness Task!!!

So I was reading Sebastien's blog about his random act of kindness and through reflecting on the fact that I have yet to blatantly do this, I said.... "First I'd like to start off my saying that you have reminded me to complete some random act of kindness... Although I talk to people all the time in the elevator at my boyfriends apartment and also hold the elevator door open for people (as it shuts very quickly)... however, with me taking the bus now to The Working Centre, I think I will take a note from your books (Sebastien) and try to say good morning and have a nice day (conversation of some sorts anyway) every time I get on and off the bus to the bus driver..." This will be an interesting little task as I am already nervous about taking the bus on my own because I don't ever do this, so I will keep my blog updated on how I am doing with this!!

     Until next time!!

  

"The E-mail..."

It was Monday morning (January 17^th) and Joanne tells us that she has a meeting on Friday that will hopefully finalize our placements, therefore we should have an e-mail Friday (January 21^st) telling us where we will be going… Which is all fine an dandy in that she has already told us the number of people that will be going to each place… 3 people to Uganda, 4 people to Kenya, 3 people to Dominican Republic, 2 people to India, and 2 people to Argentina. To me this information was both exciting as well as nerve racking… The excitement was that now we could determine all the places we weren’t going, but that still leaves all of these other places that we had opinions about and had either ranked as high or low ‘priority’ on our request forms for placement options. My form marked 1. Africa*** for place, 1. Living with a family*** for living arrangements, and 1. Working with children in counseling as by placement option… These stars did actually exist on my placement form, so it is evident that I had already put a great deal of emphasis on going to Africa and living with a family. Having already been to Africa and sharing this with the class I had thought, this is the experience I want from the Beyond Borders program, I want to go to Africa and have this experience of integrating into an environment that is seemingly so different from our own. The only thing I didn’t consider was ALL the other factors of how our placement is chosen by Joanne, based on our personality, what we have expressed we would like out of our experience, how far we can be pushed outside our comfort zones, amongst other things. So I had it in my head that Africa was the end all to be all, that how could I be chosen for any other placement… well I had put Africa on a pedestal that I unconsciously thought no other placement could EVER top the experience I would get from Africa. What I wasn’t considering was all of the amazing things the other placements would have to offer…

Well wouldn’t I then be surprised when I got ‘the e-mail’ on Friday… I knew I had a lot going on that Friday and also had begun to realize the pedestal that Africa stood on so I had come to the realization that I needed to be with someone I knew could handle the process I may go through if I didn’t see “you will be completing your placement in Uganda, Africa” or something along those lines. So I was smart and waited until I could open the e-mail with my boyfriend on Saturday morning.

The butterfly's were going crazy in my stomach and I made the choice to scroll slowly and read the ENTIRE e-mail (just as Joanne had instructed) before reading where I was going… and then the line “You will be going to the Internat women and girls home in Ternopil Ukraine. You will live with a family.” The butterfly's were gone and my expression went blank, Chris says “do you know how beautiful the Ukraine is?” while 1 tear runs, and then 2 tears, and then the whole Niagara starts to stream down my face. My heart was broke, I was instantly disappointed in what I was reading. The instant reaction was nothing even close to excitement. I tried to look up the placement organization, I was looking up pictures and begun reading about the economy, the government, the population, anything that would give me a reason to be happy (or maybe even make me hate the idea even more). My emotions were like a rocky wooden roller coaster. I walked away from the computer in utter disappointment with no idea of what to do next. Then came my process…
  

My idea was that this could not be any further from the experience I wanted with the Beyond Borders program. The experience I though I wanted was being a minority and having the experience of coping with that, living with a family and taking in as much of the culture as I possibly could, living in an extremely impoverished country and experiencing that hardship – living in a Developing country for 3 months. So to me a placement in a country in Europe was none of those things. A country that has proper medical personnel, houses with running water and electricity, people with TV’s and cars, children who attend school, the history of buildings – I was going to be living in a Developed country for 4 months. To me this means people who are well enough off that they don’t need my help. I understand that even the most developed countries have their hardships. But I was wondering what good I could possibly be doing going to the Ukraine…

Then I began to go through a process of discussing all aspects of my feelings, my reaction, what I knew about previous placements, what I knew about current placements, the type of person I feel that I am, etc. This discussion occurred both with Chris and then my parents as these very important people gave me their opinions and played devils advocate and told me what they knew about the country of Ukraine. Telling me about the corruption of the government and how huge sex trafficking is in those parts of Europe… these things began to trigger different feelings and ideas, as well as making me reflect on what I knew about this placement from previous years. I went from being disappointed to seeing that Africa was the easy choice to choose on my placement request, Africa wouldn’t have been a challenge (although I thought it would be) I think about it now and realize that I have roughed it in Africa and the experience I would have gotten in Africa wouldn’t have been challenging. The Ukraine will be that challenge I want in my experience with Beyond Borders, living in a country where I don’t know the language, and all of the other aspects of this placement that I am sure to be challenged by. I look now and I can be excited about the potential challenges that I will face on this placement. The things that I will encounter will be nothing like what I was anticipating with Africa. 
   

Although I am excited, I still have many questions about this placement and how the choice was made. Questions about how this placement was the best fit for me and what challenges I may face while I am there.

I realize now that I cannot put all my eggs in one basket, and that even now, I need to be open to the potential for change! So many things could happen between now and May. So this experience has definitely made me reflect more on my own expectations and how not to get overly invested in something that could change down the road, also that setting things on a pedestal can only lead to disappointment if those standards are not met. 

First Day at the Working Centre

During our tour of the Working Centre, I was instantly amazed at all that the centre had to offer and how it’s focus was on people helping people. It is spectacular to see the founders and employees of the centre working with the individuals who use the centres resources to keep things running smoothly, which is seemingly helping it to grow and encompass even more accessible resources for the community around it. It was amazing to see the centre making use of literally every inch of its properties to make sure there were new projects happening. The fact that their resources are available to such a large variety of people it spectacular, and the people involved in making it all happen deserve to be recognized for having such big hearts and opening doors to people that may not normally have doors open to them. I got a feeling of joy, happiness, and hope while I was learning all about the different resources the centre provides. This feeling of hope comes from the fact that I can be hopeful in that there are other people in the world that are willing to put others and others needs before themselves. Being a part of a society that focuses on ‘I’, this idea of helping others sometimes gets lost. I am excited to become a volunteer member at the Working Centre and to be involved with such am amazing organization!

Becoming a part of the Beyond Borders Experience

Now that I have explained how uncomfortable it is for me to blog, I will attempt to move onto something more personal and exciting! 

As a fourth year student majoring in Sexuality Marriage and Family Studies, with a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies, while also completing a Social Work Diploma; it is quite evident through the academic path that I have chosen for myself that I love people and what people have to offer to one another as well as the world around them. It is with this love for people that along with my professional aspirations to work with individuals on a day-to-day basis, it is a growing passion of mine to be involved in international humanitarian work; which is what lead me to the Beyond Borders Program before I was even a student at the University of Waterloo.

Prior to entering into university, in my final year of high school I decided that I would apply to be apart of a humanitarian mission to Africa with Habitat for Humanity, and while I was preparing for this process it was during a tour of the university that I first heard about the Beyond Borders Program. It was as though the university was giving me a sign saying “This is where you need to be!” I followed the sign and accepted Waterloo. But I quickly found out that that sign was not enough. Life continued to happen, leading me further and further away from my opportunity to be a part of the Beyond Borders experience... and then fourth year came and it was my last chance to apply, there was not going to be another after this... and to my surprise, after much reflection and discussion, it was finally my opportunity to be a part of something I had specifically chosen the university for... This was the beginning of my Beyond Borders experience!!

Out of My Comfort Zone Already.... (sooo frustrating)...

Type & Erase... Type & Erase... Type & Erase... Type & Erase... 

It is one week into the second semester of the Beyond Borders Program and I am already out of my comfort zone... The beginning of this blog is how my blogging process has been going so far. There has been a lot of typing and erasing as I attempt to figure out how to write to an imaginary audience. Yes I understand that my fellow Beyond Bordians are likely to read my blog, but I see that I have other followers who I do not know and therefore understand that they may be interested in what I have to say about this experience.... 

It is through blogging that I have found myself uncomfortable; however it was not always like this... Initially I was excited about this blogging idea... I was excited because I have friends who are currently travelling and they have a blog that they post to every week telling us at home about all the adventures they are having (the good and the bad), so when I heard about the fact that we were going to be blogging I thought it was going to be a great experience... However, it has ended up being the most uncomfortable thing I have ever experienced in relation to networking and reflection. Although I love reflection and journal about things all the time, I am not technologically savy and do not do so well with the whole Internet social networking thing (ex. Facebook). I am also a perfectionist and am currently having issues with the format of my blog site and the way it looks.,, I am likely to get over this anxiety about blogging in relation to what to say and more importantly how to say it on an open site.   

I NEVER thought that this would be something that I would feel uncomfortable with, but here it is... my first experience of being uncomfortable.