Through a series of coincidences, this is the direction in which I've been pushed for the past year. You may remember something I posted about taking a volunteer vacation where you can go to other countries and teach english, build schools, monitor jaguar populations etc.. Kaylynne went to Kenya for 10 weeks and her photos and stories inspired me to direct my attention to Africa.


One night on The Hour, George Stroumboulopoulos interviewed Ishmael Beah. This young man's book, A Long Way Gone – Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and another book I'd picked up at Chapters because I liked the title and the cover design (yes, I'm that shallow), What is the What by Dave Eggars, narrowed my focus to children affected by the wars there.

A couple of weeks after that, Marisha called and said she had tickets for a taping of The Hour. I like George Stroumboulopoulos' interview style so much that I jumped at the chance to see his show live even though we had no idea who the guests were. It was pure coincidence that the first one up was Hayley Wickenheiser who had just returned from a tour in Rwanda with "Right To Play".

Just this past weekend at a regatta, Iwas talking to Trent Waterhouse, a paddler from NS now living in Deline (del-i-NAY), about his experiences in the North West Territories and discover he actually participated in this program in Africa about a decade ago! This is no longer fanning the flames, this is like pouring gasoline on a fire. Trent should be the official spokesman for this program. He provided very positive feedback on his experience while addressing issues that would be of concern to someone from such a protected environment as Canada: Politics, safety, accomodations and so on.

You'd think by now I'd just accept it each time I get flicked in the forehead but it was still a surprise today when I was invited by someone who has no idea of my interest in this to join a Facebook group called Invisible Children. I've read a number of articles about how the children group together at night to protect each other from being abducted. Watching this very brief video provided a visual that I can't get out of my head. I have a plan slowly coming together. Within 18 months I hope to commit a full year to go to Africa and work in whatever capacity required.