The Paperwork starts to flow .....

I am now officially accepted into the 2010 Fellows Program, and the paperwork has started to flow. Loads of emails from Amy Schoew, the Executive Director for Teach with Africa. Request for passport information, medical forms, and a request for a personal bio.

Within hours the entire 2010 Team is virtually connected and emails are flying.

Questions, such as:

What sort of current does South Africa use?
What shots do I need?
Do I need travel insurance?
Where will we be staying?
Is there a gym nearby?
What sort of food options are there?
Is everyone excited??

I read over every single document sent, getting into the details for what my life will be like once I arrive in SA. A link to our Bed and Breakfast home for the first 30 days looks optimistic. Jim and I, of course, Google the address and have a bird's eye view of the house, the neighborhood, and how many soccer fields surround the area. The house is in a neighborhood of Cape Town that looks somewhat industrial, and the house is about 2 miles from the ocean, as the crow flies.

Now I have to stop and think for a minute - how far down does the Atlantic Ocean go? Out comes the atlas again (because it has been a few years since I studied Geography). Come to remember that the South Atlantic Ocean goes all the way to Antartica, and the Indian Ocean mixes with the Atlantic as the southern most tip of South Africa.

But back to paperwork ..... :)

My immediate feeling is that one of the tasks that may be helpful to TWA (Teach with Africa) is for me to organize the way the information is distributed. Things feel as if they are being duplicated (such as eight different places where the documents talked about the shots one needs to get) and it could be much more streamlined. That is something that I do well, thanks to the many years of Accounting and HR work that I have done. I am sure at some point it would be appropriate for me to offer my services.

In the meantime, I am looking foward to the Group Orientation that will happen in the next few days. People are flying in from around the country, to San Francisco, and we will all get to meet our "New Best Friends and Roommates."

Did I mention we will be sharing rooms??