Two more sleeps!

Well the excitement is building because on Sunday I’ll find myself bound for Cape Town, South Africa! It’s a 2-week work-trip and I’m heading out with one of the trainee youth workers whom I line manage plus 2 young people to work with a partner organisation – Bush Radio – a community radio station based in the townships of Cape Town. As well as broadcasting various radio programmes they do some amazing education and community work. They also do some great work with young people – on Saturday mornings their programmes are produced and delivered entirely by young people aged 6-18. We’ll be helping with a conference for young people which they run annually – ‘Media Kidocracy Konference’ – and they’ll also be giving us some training. The project I’m responsible for here in NI is called ‘Away from Violence’ which seeks to address the impact of violence on the lives of young people and Bush Radio staff have started their own Away from Violence projects this year so the theme of the conference is – fittingly – Away from Violence. We’re hoping that we can build links between groups of young people in SA & NI engaging in AFV projects.

I’m excited for several reasons:
1) It’s summer in Cape Town and the temperatures seem to be consistently in around the 25/26/27 degrees mark.
2) I’ve never been to Africa before and have always wanted to go.
3) There’s going to be sunshine and warmth.
4) I’m excited to meet and learn from the people we’ll be working with – I’ve heard a lot about Bush Radio from my boss who developed the partnership 5 years ago, and I think seeing the projects in action is just going to blow me away.
5) I'm going to be able to wear shorts and summer clothing, I could count on the one hand how many times that happened here in NI this year!
5) Cape Town looks like a beautiful place from pictures I’ve seen
6) Did I mention the weather?!!!

It’s been absolutely manic at work trying to get things tidied up so that I can go away with a relatively clear conscience and have the headspace to focus on the trip and all that it brings - I've been doing my usual obsessive list-making to try and feel in control of things! I’m a little nervous with the responsibility of being group leader, but I’ll just do my best to take things in my stride yet stay on the ball. This is an amazing opportunity and I plan to make the most of it! I’m hoping to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible while I’m away and I’ll also be updating a team blog for work here.

Better get on with the packing!