Tag: volunteering

Teaching abroad: A newfound passion ❤️

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I’m proud to say that I’m officially happy with the spontaneous decision I took last August when I signed a one year contract with the International School of Dongguan (ISD). Not only I had absolutely no idea where Dongguan was, but my knowledge of China was quite limited (i knew it was a big country with lots of people that eat rice…!) but there was something about that school and the position that caught my curiosity. It was a gamble. Making a big life change is pretty scary. But, what’s even scarier? Regret. Thus, I took a deep breath, signed my life away, packed my bags and left home for this unknown world of teaching abroad. Here I am, 3 months later, happier than ever! 🙂

Welcome to ISD!
My language classroom

ISD is a young, vibrant school that opened its doors in 2012. Today, it has now 330 students from kindergarten to grade 12. For myself, I’m teaching French and English as a second language at the secondary level. I also have the chance to teach the International Baccalaureate to the grade 11 and 12, a rigid program to teach but very enriching at the same time. Thankfully my classes are quite small which make my work a little less stressful! 🙂 And not to mentioned that my students are also extremely disciplined and responsible! I haven’t much to complain, really!

Celebrating the end of Movember
Canada booth during our International Day event
School Pep Rally

In a few months only, the school has already offered me some great traveling and professional development opportunities. Early September, I was sent to Bangkok for an IB workshop. I spent three busy three days in the Thai capital learning how to teach my program (French/English as a second language). It was a very intense but extremely useful course as I had no prior knowledge at all of the IB program. I came back to Dongguan more confident, with a head full of new ideas and resources, oh and a desire to come back to Thailand one day! 3 days was such a tease!

Wandering around Bangkok
The Temple of Golden Buddha
My beautiful IB workshop group

Two weeks ago, I also had the chance to accompany the grade 6 and 7 on their Week Without Walls. The WWW is a yearly field trip organised by the school where the upper school students spend a few days in a rural village doing some community services (we helped cleaning an elders home and gave a hand to a local farm), while engaging in new outdoors activities (camping, rock climbing, cycling, hiking, kayaking). It’s a great opportunity for the kids to learn new skills while bonding with their peers and teachers outside the classroom setting.

Discovering the countryside of Qing Yuan on wheels
Rockclimbing time!
Weeding papaya plantations as part of our community service

One sure thing, ISD knows how to keep its students and staff busy, and most importantly, happy! 🙂 Its no surprise Im already secretly considering staying here for another year… ☺️ But for now, the focus is to survive the last stretch before Christmas. 3,2,1, here we go! 👍🏻

Next stop: South Africa 🇿🇦

On By lacroixjulLeave a comment

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It’s been 6 months now since I left home and I’m presently visiting my 6th country on my itinerary, South Africa. So far my journey has been way above my expectations. The people I’ve met, the places I’ve seen, the cultures I’ve come across, have all changed my perspective on life. This experience has open my mind and my heart on a whole new level. I’ve learned to fully embrace every day, to appreciate the little things life gives us and to simply be happy! 😊

Ok enough with the cheesiness! 😝

I arrived in South Africa at the end of February to attend the Ultra electronic music festival, which I’ve been impatiently waiting for since last year! After having spent six months in developing countries arriving in Johannesburg (the largest city in the country) was a bit of a reverse culture choc, but at the same time, it felt good to be in a familiar environment. Flashing my Canadian flag throughout the festival was an easy way to make new friends, but also a great way to get the attention from the DJ’s. I must say I was pretty stunned when Skrillex yelled “Canada is in the house!!” during his set!! 🇨🇦

After the festival, it was now time to start my second volunteering project. I am currently based in Soweto for the next few months. Soweto is a large township outside Johannesburg with a population of two million (Soweto stands for SOuth WEstern TOwnship). It was originally developed in the early 1900 for the black population who were working in the gold mines. Soweto is also famous for being the hometown of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu; both Nobel Peace Prize winners. Despite being strongly affected by the apartheid, Soweto is now a modern and touristy place. I’ve been living here for three weeks now and I’m already feeling at home.

View from the Orlando Towers
Saturday morning run
Beautiful green parks

I am presently working at the Othandweni orphanage, which means ‘Place of Love’ in Zulu (one of the eleven South Africa official languages). There are 90 children living in this lovely government-funded children home. I’m mainly in charge of taking care of the babies in the nursery (bathing, feeding, changing, playing) but I also spend time with the older kids helping them with homework, house chores or simply being a shoulder to lean on. My goal for this project is to give as much love, attention and care to those beautiful little souls. These children all have different past and individual stories but they are all looking for the same things: affection, friendship and love.

“Give your hands to serve and your heart to love.” -Mother Theresa

Learn and Teach Others

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For 25 years now, the Nova Scotia Gambia Association (NSGA) has been working to create a healthy, equitable and sustainable future for the Gambian youths. NSGA’s projects emphasize the concept of learning through active involvement. They train, educate and empower youth in order to build healthy communities across The Gambia. Their motto “Learn and Teach Others” perfectly reflects the organization’s mission.

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The NSGA is like a little family. The camaraderie between every workmate is incredible. Everyday the office is full of laughs, hugs, energy and positivism. It’s impossible not coming to work in a good mood! Even me, who is not a morning person, it doesn’t take long before I’m smiling at my desk! 🙂

The last day of Love4Gambia, some of the drama troupers came to run with me
World AIDS Day

For the last month I’ve been mainly working with the 15 drama troupers. The NSGA is formed of three troupes of 5 young adults who go into schools and communities to promote health awareness. In schools, they will perform a short play on a health issue (they are presently focusing on water sanitization) during the morning school’s assembly. The performance is followed by a short discussion and a period of questions with the students. Then, the troupe will meet with the school’s peer health club and educate the students on various subjects (Ebola, HIV-AIDS, teen pregnancy, life skills). The purpose of the peer health clubs is to train a group of students who will then teach their friends, classmates and family about it. The NSGA peer health program has been going on for over 15 years now. Today, there are almost 200 peer health clubs in schools all over the country!

Afterwards, troupers will go into communities to do health awareness on Ebola, Malaria or water sanitization. Some days they will improvise a skit in the middle of the market (let me tell you it does attract a lot of attention!). After the performance, they will go around the market to talk about the subject and answer the public’s questions. Other times, the drama troupes will go directly into households to educate families about health. I am surprise, each and every time I go with a troupe, how welcoming and responding are the people and the students. Everyone loves and appreciates the work of the NSGA and I surely know why now! 🙂

As for me, well I’ve been doing my best to use my drama skills and teaching experience to help them improve what they are doing. I must say they are all very talented but having an outsider observing and giving them feedback on a daily basis can be valuable. I’ve also given them a hand with different other projects like filming an educational movie on Ebola and putting on short plays about HIV/AIDS discrimination for Worlds AIDS Day on December 1st. They performed at the 22nd Arch in Banjul in front of a massive crowd and they just simply looked stunning! I was really proud!

I’m enjoying a lot my time at the NSGA! As much as I’m doing my best to help them, I’m learning a lot myself! I think what they are doing is pretty amazing and very powerful. They are using nothing else but their drama skills to educate the society and therefore, save lives. Successful people think outside the box and I believe the NSGA pulled it off!

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Living on the Smiling Coast

On By lacroixjul3 Comments

Sorry about the wait! I finally decided it was time to start this blogging thing to give you guys an update of my new Gambian life but also to keep you posted throughout my journey on the African continent!

Sunset at Bijilo Beach
🙂
Fajara Beach

It’s been almost a month since I finished my 424km fundraising run across The Gambia (you can follow my adventure on love4gambia.com). I am now temporarily living and volunteering in the country until January. When I first decided to take a sabbatical leave from work, my plan was to come to Africa to travel and volunteer. In June, I attended the 25th anniversary dinner of the Nova Scotia Gambia Association (NSGA) to meet everyone from the organization I was going to run for to raise money. During the evening, they presented a video about their drama troupes: devoted, talented, young adults doing drama to raise awareness on health issues in schools and communities… What an amazing idea! As a qualified drama teacher, I knew instantly that I wanted to work with the NSGA. I was very impressed by their work already. I will write more about the organization and my volunteering in my next blog.

So, after the run, I enjoyed a few days of well-deserved rest and recovery. All I did was lay on the beach, eat anything but rice and sleep like a baby. It was awesome. Soon after this little vacation, I was ready to roll again. Most of you know I can’t stand doing nothing for too long!

After starting my 8 weeks contract with the NSGA, I moved into a nice house in the neighborhood of Old Jeshwang, in the region of Kombo (50% of the national population lives in this region). I am living with ‘Papa Mo’ (our landlord), Danielle and Aisha (two other Canadian working for the NSGA) and Ismael (a Gambian working in the area). We also have the daily company of Ndey and Mariama, two young women working for Papa Mo. They take really good care of the house, but they also are excellent tour guides, cooking teachers and clubbing partners!

Me, Aisha and Danielle
Our lovely home
Ndey in Old Jeshwang

My week days mostly consist of working (which means following the drama troupes around the region), running (yes, I’m already back on the road), going to the gym (22$/month for a personal trainer is not too bad of a deal!) and doing my shopping around the numerous markets. Fruits, vegetables, meat, bread, condiments, toiletries, clothing, everything is found at a different place. As much as I don’t like Walmart, I must say it has its advantages…

Morning run
Serekunda Market

During my weekends, my Gambian husband (aka my bike) and I cycle around the area to do all the touristic things (monkey park, crocodile pool, botanical gardens, beaches) and at night I do the social stuff (drink Julbrew -the local beer, go clubbing, have tea and shisha, hang around with the housemates). One thing I know, I won’t get bored while I’m here! There is so much to see and to do. Everyone is also very welcoming and want to make sure I’m making the most of my time in The Gambia. So far so good!

Beach time with the boys
Yup, they’re real!
Night out on the Strip with Mariama

My key to happiness (and to prevent homesickness) is to keep myself active and busy by doing what I love and be surrounded by people who make me happy. I’m trying to learn as much as I can from this magnificent culture. I would say that I’m adapting pretty well to this Gambian lifestyle and I am enjoying very much my time on the Smiling Coast! 🙂