Love, Running, and Other Drugs

April 25th, today, is Free Love Day: Draw a Heart on Your Wrist, Change the World. Basically, Free Love Day is a day to promote awareness of suicide and depression, as well as to advocate a lifestyle of unconditional love. My battles with my own mental illness and the mind minions of those I hold most dear have made me who I am today and that's enough about that.

I didn't want to run today. In fact, I came very close to not running today, BUT it was a beautiful day (minus the wind), I felt the need to make up for the running that my motivation partner (that's you Chris) wasn't doing because she was battling the plague, and I figured I might as well walk/run to the advanced voting poles since I forgot to stop on my drive home. With those reasons in tow, I walked/ran 4.2 miles in about 75 minutes. Yes, I know this is not a fast pace, but I'm just starting this whole running thing, so for me, an 18 minute mile is the best I can do right now.

Moving on to my trip...I have so many things to do! It seems like the closer I get to departure day, the more things that pop into my head and get added to my to-do list. Today I managed to get my car maintenance stuff taken care of. Summer tires back on, oil changed, and now all that's left to do is a wash before it sits untouched for 4-months. I finally bought a handmade journal from Bangladesh at Ten Thousand Villages which will become my travel journal as I embark on this adventure. Now, only about 100 other things to purchase and take care of in the less than two weeks I have before I leave, and I'll be set!

Did I Mention I'm Training for a Half Marathon?!

Before I get into the subject of this post's title, let's discuss trip preparation and where I'm at with that. I am now counting days. Today it is 14 days until I board my plane and begin my trek to the South Eastern Hemisphere. Since my last post, I've checked quite a few things off of my To-Do List.

Done:

- 2nd of 3 Hepatitis Twinrix vaccination (and damn does that shot hurt).

- Travel Health appointment to discuss Malaria meds (which are a little expensive - $6 a tablet and I'll need at least 12, BUT worth it!).

- Voltage adapter is in my suitcase.

- Scotiabank account is open and VISA is on its way.

- Notified credit card company and talked to phone company (which was pretty much useless, but at least my extras are set to be cancelled the day I leave).

Still To-Do List:

- Actually get Malaria meds (the Travel Nurse was nice enough to let me see if my doctor would write the prescription for free).

- Cancel internet and notify landlord.

- Get a collection of "Canadian" photos together.

- Change insurance to "Lay Up" (can't do that until the day I leave).

and a few new additions:

- Get summer tires put back on car (appointment booked for Monday), get oil changed, vacuum inside, and wash outside.

- Shop for Botswana climate friendly and anti-mosquito clothing.

- Order Botswana currency.

and...

-PACK! - I will have you know, however, that I do have my two suitcases laying open on the floor of my spare bedroom with a few things in them that I remember to toss in from time to time.

I am EXCITED. I am nervous. My mind is a whirlwind of things I need to remember to do before I leave.

If you know me, though, you won't be surprised that on top of my trip to Gabs, Bots I am also planning a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA in December so that I can run The Strip at Night. Yep, a 1/2 Marathon on December 4th down the Vegas Strip at night! It is going to be epic. I've just started training so, of course, it's slow going, but I have some st

ellar playlists and a lot of ambition and I can do this! My guy is going to run the full marathon and that's great for him, but 13 miles is quite enough for this gal. I've learned that the key to these things is leg strength. I did 3.2 miles the other night and I could have kept going if my legs would have let me. Lunges, Heel Raises, Plies, Squats - o boy!

14 Time Zones and 36.5 Hours

I have chosen not to count how many days it is until I leave the country. Despite the fact that I am more excited than I've ever been in my entire life, I am also more nervous than I have ever been in my entire life. I'm not nervous about Gabs or the placement or the culture shock, not at all actually. What I am shakin' in my shoes about is the travel part of the whole trip. I fly out of Winnipeg at 6:55 p.m. Central Time on May 6th; arrive in Vancouver (don't ask why - because I have no idea why I am flying in the complete opposite direction of my ultimate destination) at 7:50 p.m. Pacific Time; depart Vancouver at 8:40 p.m.; arrive in London's Heathrow airport - one of the biggest in the world at 1:40 p.m British Summer Time- and this, my friends, is where my terror begins; depart London at 7:10 p.m.; arrive in Johannesburg at 6:55 a.m. South African Standard Time; depart Johannesburg at 8:35 a.m.; and FINALLY arrive in Gaborone at 9:20 a.m. Central Africa Time on May 8th. All in all I'll travel through 14 time zones! Can we say JET LAG! Gabs is actually only 7 hours ahead of friendly Manitoba, but travelling to get there is going to be trying to say the least. After all is said and done, my feet will touch Gaborone soil after 36 and a half hours of traveling. Oi! The trip back is practically the same except that I fly through Chicago (not quite as far West) instead of Vancouver. I'll arrive back on Manitoba soil on August 20th at 2:18 p.m.

I'll be in Botswana for 3 months and 3 weeks!

So, readers, the first map, indicated by the red line, shows the approximate distance from my home as I now know it, to my temporary home half way around the world. The second map, as indicated by the red arrow, indicates a little more clearly, exactly where I'll be in relation to the rest of the African continent.

Now that you know where I'll be and how long I'll be there, let me go over a few technicalities that I've experienced and realisations I've come to during my planning process thus far. Leaving the country for more than 90 days makes planning exceedingly more difficult. I had to put in a request for a special Manitoba Health Card, I had to buy private insurance because my extended health benefits at work lapse, and the cost of said private insurance increased significantly due to the 90+ days outside of Canadian borders. With that said, insurance = done!

Other items checked off my to-do list:

• Security Clearance
• Medical Clearance including Typhoid Fever vaccination, shot 1 of 3 Hepatitis Twinrix vaccination, and Tetanus booster.

Things still on my to-do list:

• 2nd of 3 Hepatitis Twinrix (I'll get the 3rd when I get back)
• Malaria medication for travel purposes (I don't need it for my time in Gabs, but if I happen to go into Northern Botswana, I'll need it)
• Voltage adapter (Botswana outlets put out twice the voltage that Canadian ones do)
• Scotiabank account (the only bank that is the same in Gabs and, therefore, allows me to avoid the $5 service fee every time I withdraw money there)
• Cancel internet, notify landlord, notify credit card company, look into phone contract suspension, change car insurance (all of these get lumped into one bullet point because they are technicalities and otherwise the list would be entirely too long)
• Pictures of Canada, especially snow (it's my job to get these students ready for life here)
• PACK!

Immunizations and Perogies

Thursday was Doctor Day. $45 for the appointment, $100 for the shots, 3 needles (Hepatitis A and B Twinrix, Typhoid Fever, and Tetanus Booster), two arms that are still a bit sore, and I am almost done the immunization process. I have to get one more dose of the $65 Hepatitis shot before I go and then another one when I get back. Now I'm just waiting to get the final word on whether on not I need to take the Malaria meds or not and I'll be set! While waiting for the pharmacy to fill the required syringes, I stocked up on two forms of Gravol (drowsy and non-drowsy) and Immodium...o the wonders of travelling when one has an anxious digestive system.

Thursday also marked the first day of my first real fundraiser. Out went the Ukrainian Perogy Fundraiser emails and in came the orders. The original plan was to cap the orders at 200 dozen, but when, after only two hours, I had over 100 dozen ordered, Mom and I decided that we'd increase the amount a little. Currently, we are sitting at 217 dozen ordered. Requests have slowed down now and after tomorrow Mom and Baba will have a stock of 100 dozen ready to go. Next weekend I hope to travel home to G.P. to get my fingers involved in the pinching as well.

A few other tidbits...my Leave of Absense has been approved at work. I have to be in Gaborone for orientation on May 9th. I am still working out the end date of my placement. I've gotten in touch with Gillian, a woman who is in Gaborone on an SWB placement right now and she is answering all of my questions! I cannot express how grateful I am to have come in contact with her. She is putting my nerves at ease considerably.

Cheers to needle and perogy pinches!

Where do I Start?

How about the beginning...
I decided that it's high time I get myself out of this country and volunteering abroad rather than simply helping other people do exactly that. At the end of December, I mailed my application to Students Without Borders (SWB) for a placement at the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Field Office in Gaborone, Botswana.

On January 18th (my sister's birthday), I had my phone interview with the SWB staff. On February 7th, I received an email letting me know that I had been recommended to the WUSC Field Office in Gaborone. For the next 24 days, 9 hours, and 37 minutes (I'm just kidding, I don't actually know the hours and minutes), I waited and waited and waited, crazy going slowly the entire time. On March 3rd, I received my acceptance email. At that point, I basically started bouncing off the walls.

As you can see by the date on this post, it is March 4th. I have all of my pre-departure documents sprawled across my living room floor, my doctor's appointment booked for next Thursday, a to-do list that keeps getting longer with each passing thought, and an intense wonderment at how exactly I am going to have $1800 ready for March 21st and then another $2500 ready for April 1st. From this point forward, my life is going to be travelling at the speed of a cheetah!

I suppose you might be wondering what exactly I will be doing in Gabs. Here is the link to the placement description:
Program Assistant-ISM and SWB

Bashful Blogger

Ok so I haven't been keeping up with this blog, but due to the disappointment of a dear friend of mine, I've gotten my butt back in gear and am now updating.

I made it to Day 27 recording my Random Acts of Kindness with full intentions of updating this blog a lot sooner than this. After Day 27, I got even tardier and stopped recording them all together. I know, how shameful. In all honesty, though, I do live my life with the values instilled by the 40-Day Challenge. I have a lot of great people in my life and the love just pours over to be paid forward.

So the Random Acts that I recorded:
Day 9 - I opened doors for people everywhere I went.
Day 10 - I helped the woman in our Mail Room at the university sort the mail while I waited for my printing to finish from the Print Shop.
Day 11 - It was Remembrance Day and since my partner is in the army, he had to get dressed up and march in the service. Before he left for the morning, I went to Tim Horton's and got him a coffee.
Day 12 - I live in an apartment building, so when garbage day comes, all of the bins get moved out for pick up and then moved back once the garbage is gone. My good deed for the day was to move the bins back for the guys who take care of our building.
Day 13 - I had this good deed in the back of my mind for a while and finally did it on Day 13. I put quarters in random shopping carts at Safeway so that when people came to get carts they'd get a freebie.
Day 14 - My job requires me to do certain things and leaves other things to my discretion. Day 14 was a day of extras for the people I work for.
Day 15 - One of the local radio stations (KX 96) was having a contest in which listeners were asked to nominate a person of quality. I nominated one of my friends and she won!

That same day, on his way home, my partner witnessed a single vehicle roll over on the highway in front of him. He stopped and administered First Aid while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. I know that isn't a personal act of kindness, but it was just too great of a story not to share considering the nature of this particular blog post.

Day 16 - I received a surprise coffee on my desk from another person who had taken on the 40-Day Challenge. I already had a fresh coffee so I paid forward the freebie to another unsuspecting friend.
Day 17 - I had a doctor's appointment and, after parking, proceeded to plunk some change into the meters of some of the random people parked. As I sat waiting for the doctor, a random woman sitting beside complimented me on my hair (now, remember, I recently shaved my head). We had a really great conversation about HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, and family members of hers that had lost their hair to cancer. Wow!
Day 18 - I did a huge extra for one of the professors that I work for and sent one of my best friends a congratulations card on getting a stellar internship at a swanky law firm for the summer. (She cried when she got it).
Day 19 - I did my monthly volunteer stint at Ten Thousand Villages. Man, I love that store!
Day 20 - On this particular Sunday, I made a conscious effort to smile at people everywhere I went. I also created an entry for WUSC into an online contest to win $25,000. I learned of the contest a bit too late for us to get the number of votes needed to qualify for the final rounds, but I guess it's the thought that counts.
Day 21 - I gave a friend my resume so that she could "spruce" hers up.
Day 22 - I was given another "freebie" in the form of a cheese bagel, but I had already filled myself for the morning so I, once again, paid it forward. I also waited for a vehicle to turn into busy oncoming traffic rather than simply blowing right by them.

Day 23 - Ok - here my fine friendly readers, is the sad spot of my 40-Day Challenge - Random Acts of Kindness - while I am sure I did something nice, I don't think I consciously made an effor to because I didn't write anything down. Technically, the rules of the challenge state that I have to start all over at Day 1 because I missed a day.

Day 24 - Here in Brandon, we've been getting a lot of snow; and by a lot, I mean a tonne! When I wiped the mound of overnight snow off of my car in the morning, I also wiped off the car parked beside me.
Day 25 - I did a really fun thing today! On Day 15, I guess it would have been, I was given a bag of "goo" along with a recipe for Friendship Loaf. Over the next ten days I mushed the contents of the bag and added ingredients to eventually end up with complete batter for the loaf. It was delicious. Part of the instructions include making enough start up batter to pass it along to 4 friends. On Day 25, I passed out 4 bags of "goo", the recipe, and a sampling of the completed loaf.
Day 26 - One of the cleaners in the residence buildings here at BU saves all of the empty beer cans and bottles for the WUSC club to take in for money. With some help from friends, I loaded up the empties and got the money for WUSC's many non-profit campaigns.

I know it is shameful, but with only 14 days left, I stopped recording the things I was doing, and in all honesty, likely stopped making a conscious effort to be nice. I suppose that means sometime in the future, I will have to start up again. I am determined to complete this challenge!

And now, after that long read, go and do something nice for someone!

Randomly Kind on Days 7 and 8

Day 7 - Sunday - I spent most of my day at home reading which made it a little difficult to do something randomly kind; however, I was given the perfect opportunity to do something nice on my quick trip to the grocery store. On the way back to my apartment I slowed down to let someone merge into traffic in front of me. Once again, this is something that too seldom happens in my city of residence. People either don't notice signal lights or simply cannot be bothered to let other drivers in.

Day 8 - Back to work Monday and an act of kindness first thing. I left a bouquet of flowers outside the door of my hair stylist's salon. I left a little anonymous note, but since she knows that I am doing this challenge, she knew right away that it was me. I made her day and her happiness made mine!

The flowers were my only plan for the day, but something truly random popped up. At lunch, I noticed a colleague was a lot quieter than she typically is during our lunch breaks. Not wanting to put her on the spot, after lunch I sent her a short little email with a funny picture attached and told her I hoped all was well. She responded that she was having a rough day and thanked me for the reminder to smile!

I really love this challenge!