My bags are packed, I’m ready to go…

Tomorrow the big journey will finally start. Me and eleven colleagues will fly out to Belo Horizonte in Brazil. We will be supporting 4 organizations in Belo.

It was a long wait and I can’t wait any longer to finally get going. I applied for the Social Sabbatical in March 2016. It was always so far away and now it is finally here.

The past 6 weeks the preparation started and they have been an up and down — huge excitement, joy, but also sneaky thoughts of “what if we cannot achieve something”, “will we be save”, “will the communication work out?”. It is a step in the unknown, something completely different and it is natural that this comes with doubts, too. Nevertheless, deep inside of me I’m 100% sure that it all will work out and will become one of the time of our lives.

For me it is not the first time in a social project environment. I did something alike in 2012 when going privately to South Africa to support 2 children projects. I loved the time back then, it was an amazing experience. I met so many sweet and lovely people and it changed something deep inside of me. So why do something alike again? Back in 2012 I did a lot of things- taking care of children, painting a school, supporting a community center, but it all had only a short impact for the time I was there. My goal and hope for the social sabbatical is to really change something for the organization I’m working with in the long run.

One more night of sleep and then the adventure will start! I can’t wait to meet everyone, the organization, the culture, the food, the Brazilian way of life. I’ll keep you posted!