Once upon a time in Shimoni.....
It
all began four months ago on October first, 2011.
I was just a 23 year old kid from Chicago arriving in Africa for the
first time. With the exhaustion I felt,
it was hard to even feel nervous when my taxi driver dropped me off at the Reef
Hotel in Mombasa. It was easy to pick
out the new “GVIs” so we all clustered together at once.
The
program began with a pick up by GVI staff members and it was pretty much
straight to work from there. I signed up for the community program so I did a
lot of teaching from the start and immediately fell in love with Shimoni. We did a couple weeks of marine and forest
activities but in my heart I knew that I wanted to lead teach for the second
half of my stay.
 |
| Eric gets acquainted with Rama |
Once
our ten weeks of combination training was over, all of the interns were allowed
to apply for a staff position to lead new volunteers. I of course adamantly tried to receive the
lead teacher position in Shimoni. I felt
that my interview went well but unfortunately I did not have a stunning
CV. After a week of
nervousness/excitement, our positions were finally assigned and I landed the
teaching position!!!
From
there we had an exciting vacation for a couple weeks and then it was straight
to training. Getting to know the four
schools we work with and how to lead new volunteers was only a small fraction
of what was to come next. I cannot lie; the first week and a half of holding
this position was filled with frightening confusion. Now that week 3 is almost
over, I can finally say that I am settling in quite well. This experience has helped me grow as a
person and I know that the next couple months will be extremely productive and
something that I can continue to expand on when I depart for home.
Eric
Schrock
Shimoni Community Field Staff
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