Kicking off the Sabbatical — Arrival in Zimbabwe
We officially arrived and began our sabbatical 1 week ago, and I have been immersing, observing, and participating which has meant less posting. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a lot of ‘picture taking’, however, I have been more focused on making sure that I’m soaking up this entire experience and living in the moment.
The morning before I set off for Zimbabwe, we all started sharing selfies. Except for one instance of a video call, my fellow sabbatical participants have only been voices on the phone. I met Ralf (Germany) and Caterina (Italy) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where we desperately searched for coffee before taking the next leg of our trip to Harare. Twenty-five hours after taking off from Toronto, I touched down in Harare, and my adventure began.
Exhausted from lack of sleep, but excited, we got picked up by our Pyxera Global team — Mackenzie and Lena, and made our way to, what is now, our home for the next 28 days. The first night we had an informal team dinner and a front-row seat to a proposal — what an auspicious way to start the Sabbatical!
On our first full day — Sunday — we had an orientation, learned more about each other and performed a series of team building activities designed to bring us together, really quickly. We ended our day with a city tour, then a traditional Zimbabwean lunch and some jazz! What a fantastic day!
Everyone was up bright and early on Monday which felt a lot like the first day of school. We had a half-day presentation during which we met all of our respective organizations, my sub-team — Jana (Germany) and Lohith (India). We then went off to meet with our organization — The BOOST Fellowship — after which we had lunch and attended a team meeting.
And so it begins…
