Structure makes me happy

On Friday I found out lots of information.
I got both my host family allocation and my placement details. WOW I imagine you are thinking in response to this, my head started to spin a little as I began to process this news.

First my host family allocation -
I will be living with Brenda Moses and her granddaughter in the suburbs of Cape Town with up to 5 other volunteers. There are 3 volunteer rooms with bunk beds, a shared bathroom for all of us, kitchen and lounge. It is amazing to see photos of all these spaces that will become so familiar to me a couple of months from now.
At the moment I can see that when I arrive there will be one other volunteer who has been there since the 2nd January, they will be there the whole time I am, additionally there is a volunteer who will arrive a week before me and stay till March.
There is a Facebook group for all of the volunteers in Cape Town, which I have just introduced myself on. It is amazing how many projects are taking place there!

I also got my weekly timetable for my placement -
Monday - Wednesday I will be doing workshops on life skills, human rights awareness and drugs and alcohol rehabilitation in the community.
Wednesday morning - I will be visiting shelters for abused and destitute woman.
Thursday - This is debriefing day, I will be working in the office (image below), researching and planning the next weeks workshops, as well as reflecting on the week.
Friday - The law firm is closed to clients due to weekly meetings.

Monday - Thursday: 8:30-4:30pm
Friday: 8:30-1pm
Weekends - free

Now my visa is sorted (being collected on the 8th Feb) and I have structure to my trip I can begin to get very excited!

It was so lovely to have so many brilliant people come over on Saturday afternoon for cake and be able to share all this information with them. I am very grateful for everyone who has supported me over the last few months through financial support, prayer and encouragement. Look forward to writing weekly blogs when I am in South Africa to update you all on what I am doing!
It is now 33 days to go!

Prayer requests:

- I have a few weeks left in the UK so am meeting up with lots of people for the last time in a while, please be praying for those times full of excitement.
- I have mentioned energy before, but reading through my weekly timetable I am reminded just how much of a challenge this is going to be.
- Hopefully I will be able to get in touch with some of the people I will be living and working with before I go, please be praying for good relationships.
- I will not have any internet where I am living, I hope this will be more of a blessing than a annoyance, but it will defiantly be an adjustment! Please pray that I get the balance right between keeping in touch with people at home and embracing a new culture fully.

Thank you for making it to the end of my fourth blog post! Have a great week.

Between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be!

One of the aims of my gap year, especially in part one - the time before I travel, is to do things I haven't previously had time for. Having spent the last 15 years of my life in education from Monday to Friday it has been a huge shift to have so much say on how I spend my time.

One of my favourite things to do is get lost in a book, during peak exam time the only book I read was 1984 and even that was in the name of Cold War revision. So as exams ended and the long summer holiday presented itself I went on my usual reading spree - these were a few of my favourites:

- Room by Emma Donoghue, this was one of my read in 2 days books, very captivating story about a mother and son who are being held captive in a room.

- The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez, this was a Christmas present a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed the insight into life in Kabul, it was a slightly less intense Khaled Hosseini book.

- 1000 lashes by Raif Badawi, this is a collection of Raif Badawi's blog posts that got him imprisoned for 10 year and sentenced to 1000 lashes in Saudi Arabia. I recognised Raif Badawi's story from Amnesty International Campaigns for political prisoners and felt compelled to know more about his story.

- Enemy Combatant by Mozzam Begg, this is a harrowing read and infuriated me to no end. It is the life of Mozzam Begg an ordinary British citizen that was captured, tortured and detained in Guantanmo Bay for 3 years. To this day it isn't clear why he was taken from his family home in the middle of the night, I would highly recommend reading this! It has increased my desire to campaign for the shut down of Guantanmo Bay in my life time.

- Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, this is a great book that switches between two interconnecting stories centuries apart. Is a long book but defiantly a page turner.

-  On Liberty by Shami Chakrabati, this is another re- read and a book that I wish I could get every person in the UK to read. It is about one of my favourite topics, you guessed it HUMAN RIGHTS. It is the reflections of Shami Chakrabati in her role as director of Liberty and how she has seen human rights legislation change since 9/11.

- Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult, I read this whilst lounging on the sailing boat we spent a week on in Turkey whilst the rest of my family did all the hard work (at least I admit it)! Jodi Picoult is one of my trusty authors, I know that when I pick up a book with her name on I will enjoy seeing all the jigsaw pieces fall into place as the plot comes together.

Between January and August I read 13 books.

Between September and December I read 12 books!
Whilst I was eagerly waiting for my structure to emerge during September and October I went a bit crazy on the reading front and read a couple of books a week and several I would start and finish in one day cover to cover. These are my favourites:

- Election Notebook: The Inside Story of the Battle Over Britain's Future and My Personal Battle To Report It by Nick Robinson, WOW, what a fantastic eye opener to the behind the scenes of 2015 politics! I loved the informal writing style and comments of Nick Robinson, Political Editor for the BBC as he travelled the country following the political campaigns for both the Scottish Referendum and the General Election. Especially as someone who joined the Liberal Democrats on the 10th May 2015 it was fascinating to see some of the back ground in our electoral defeat.

- The Truth about the Henry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker, this was essentially a murder mystery with many twists and turns and intricate characters, stayed up most of the night reading this! Was possibly my favourite fiction of the year.

- Very Good Lives by JK Rowling, this is one of my favourite speeches of all time, I almost know it word for word.Last Christmas mum got me an illustrated copy of the speech and I love reading it. Encourage everyone in the world to listen to JK Rowling Harvard Commencement Speech to hear her talk about the importance of failure and imagination! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGqp8lz36c

- Justice by Michael Sandel, I finished this book having had lots of breaks in reading it, it takes some brain work! But is worth the effort! It talks through lots of different philosophical theories relating to justice with real life examples to help you get your head round them.

- The Girl who was shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai, this was absolutely amazing! I wrote about it in more detail in my last blog post see here http://myonlinenotebookacf.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/reflections-on-importance-of-empathy.html

So that is it! And after all of that if you are interested in what I am currently reading it is Between the Extremes by Nick Clegg! LOVING IT!

Very impressed if you made it to the end, wanted to document something that has taken such a prominent place in my gap year.
Thank you for making it to the end of my third blog post.