Initial Thoughts

I depart for South Africa in just a couple of days - what once seemed like a distant trip is now very close at hand. I have been describing the trip as teaching entrepreneurship to high school students, which I think is a fair summary. The outline of the trip is the following:

• After getting settled in to the housing at Stellenbosch University, we will receive a few days' worth of training on the curriculum we will be teaching
• We teach Monday-Friday for two weeks; the weekend in the middle we will be going to Cape Town for some tourist and cultural activities
• The final few days we go on safari in Kruger National Park, then return home
  

While I have some idea of what we will be doing and teaching over there, I am sure that the actual reality will be much different. I wonder how the South African townships resemble other parts of the world that I have visited, and I'm very excited to meet new people. There is really no substitute for the vividness that exposure to a new place brings. I really hope that at the end of this visit I will feel as though I have contributed something positive (that sounds trite and I know it, but it's also true!). I also hope I'm able to keep up with my work and other Babson coursework (we're starting the Capstone on June 21st and I'm very excited for that as well).