My Heart is in Africa

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“There are different kinds and degrees of love, and they change over time, ripening and deepening and changing us in the process.”- Cassandra King.

Over the past three years I have gotten the chance to experience this first hand. Since 2014, I have traveled to Nicaragua, Morocco, and Tanzania with Children’s Global Alliance. In the summer of 2018, I will get the opportunity to travel back to Tanzania.
        When I got the call that I would be lucky enough to travel back to the place that has by far impacted me the most, I was speechless. All I could do was look at the note that one of my students, Esther wrote me that was hanging above my bed and smile. I was going to get the chance to see all of their beautiful faces again. As I am sitting here trying to write my blog, it is hard for me to put all the emotions together when Tanzania is on my mind. Like any other trip, you take away different lessons from each place.  Nicaragua taught me to be grateful for what I have been blessed with. Morocco to never take learning for granted. Tanzania, see that’s where I am at a loss for words. Tanzania touched my heart like no other: it taught me to love unconditionally no matter the circumstances are, it taught me that no matter the size of the obstacles in your way you can always strive for the best and overcome them, last but not least, Tanzania taught me that happiness is a choice that is made.
Over theses three years, I have realized that people think you to come back a totally different person after every trip. However, I have noticed that it has been a slow progression of changing after every trip. Since 2013, when I sent in my first application for Children’s Global Alliance, I couldn’t strike up conversation with random people, I wasn’t able to be confident in myself and the things that I was capable of. Since then I have been pushed to limits I never even imagined. I have had to stand up in front of a class of kids that had no idea who I was and didn’t even speak the same language as me and go for it, in hopes that I could bring a new light into their world. I have been pushed everyday on and off the trips to better myself as a person with every chance I get.
When I think about traveling back to Tanzania, I couldn’t be happier to get the opportunity to go back to the place that will forever have an impacted on my life and have a place in my heart. This year I will be traveling to Tanzania as a student mentor, this means that I not only need to be exceptional in my teaching this year, but also be a role model to the others students around me. My goals for this year is to pour my heart into everything I do and to be confident in myself especially in my teaching.

I am more than excited to get the chance to travel back to one of the most beautiful places in the world that holds some of the most compassionate people I have ever met. This year, Tanzania will give me the chance to deeper the connections with people I met there that will forever be on my mind and to push myself to be the best possible version of myself that I can possible be.

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