Field placement update!

Hello!

I have great news!!! (Actually, I've known this for an entire week now, I just wanted to keep you hanging until Thursday to discover it.) Last week we had a meeting with Grainne, our field placement coordinator, to give us an update about the field placements and to review some of the terms in our contract. And now we have dates! It has been confirmed that we will be starting our in-country orientation on Monday, September 12, 2011 in Lima, Peru. We will all be returning to Pearson Airport in Toronto on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012, to then be transfered to St. Paul's University College. All of the field placement participants will be livng at St. Paul's for two weeks as we debrief from our international experiences, finish up our capstone projects, and have a banquet! (I will also be turning 23 during this time, so I guess a celebration will be in order!) It's pretty exciting to know when we will be leaving. Until now, I was feeling so-so about the field placement because I have not had much say in the planning or organization (except that I chose to go to Peru over Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Botswana and Malawi), but that's about it. Now at least I can plan my summer accordingly, and it feels as though it's so much more real. So I'm excited.

The other exciting news I received is that Grainne has made an exception for those of us who wish to travel beforehand! Originally we were told that we must all depart from Toronto together as a group and travel to Peru on the same flight, but we were informed last week that if we wish, we can change the date of the plane ticket to fly to South America earlier. This is absolutely AMAZING, because I have a large break before the field placement starts. I am taking three required courses this summer, but they will all be over on Monday, July 25th. I have a physical check-up with the doctor on August 8th, and after that I am free as a bird until I begin my field placement! I had originally thought of going to visit Rosalie (my little sister) in France where she will be working for the summer, but I am now strongly reconsidering just taking off early and going to visit Bolivia and Argentina? Why not! I think I have convinced my best friend, Roop, to come along on the ride too! If anyone else would like to join along you are more than welcome to come!

So that's my exciting news! Next week I'll be writing about one of the most innovative, under-used technologies in the developing world that I am currently doing a group project on. So stay tuned!

Have a great week everyone!
Sheila