Canada World Youth

Hello friends, family and fans.

It's another one of those... she's going somewhere, and doing something

The rumors are true, I'm going on Canada World Youth. Now, hopefully most of your a familiar with this through my fundraising. It wasn't a hoax to acquire your money, it an actual honest-to-goodness not-for-profit. I heard several warnings that it could be a scam (and while I could still be proved horribly wrong) from some of you, but it would have to be pretty elaborate by this point.

Canada World Youth -as I have told many of you- is a CIDA funded volunteer exchange organization. Out of the exchange programs they offer I applied for the Youth Leaders in Action.Which is....

"In the Youth Leaders in Action program, a team of 9 young Canadians and 9 young people from a partner country spend 6 months together doing volunteer work:

• 3 months in a Canadian community
• 3 months in a community in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, or Latin America

Each young Canadian is matched with a participant from the exchange country for the entire period.
This is a unique opportunity to become involved as a volunteer, discover other cultures, learn another language, and become a true citizen of the world!"


Don't be embarrassed if I told you where I was going and you forgot (except for you mum, you should be embarrassed if you forgot). It's three months in St. John's, Newfoundland, and three months in Saltpond, Ghana.

As some personal background on these places...

St. John's - Grade 11 Planning project on your life life after high school. I had to come up with a study, a career, and two universities I would apply to. After much agonizing, a classmate point out that my mark is not effect by my future ability to follow through with these juvenile plans. And that's how I got on the mailing list for Hawaii Pacific University, and Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's. It wasn't the universities that appealed so much as the locations. Hawaii was tropical, but St. John's was exotic. Years go by and that brother of mine winds up in St. Johns and tells me I'd love it. As if I didn't know. But I really didn't know just how much. Even if it brotherly fabricated lies, I take delight in the Newfoundland of my mind. Let's just list the 4 enjoyable rumors I've heard from everyone who hears me even so much as mutter Newfoundland.

1. The most friendly people they've ever encountered.
2. Celtic music as far as the ear can hear.
3. Battered cod tongues and other weird food (my passion)
4. Wildlife that hasn't been destroyed (I'm told this little beauty was wiped off the West Coast but still thrives off the coast of Newfoundland)

Ghana - During the span of only a few months, Ghana developed a reputation in my world towards the end of grade 12. Not only did I actually see it on the map for the first time, but I heard what must have been a 20 minute lecture from my best friend, Dana's, brother, Michael, about why this was the best place to live. Then not long after it came up in a Planning 12 lunch time presentation by Lattitude (formerly GAP). The organization offers gap year exchanges for a fixed cost, with the exception of Ghana. Ghana actually costs more, as far as I hear its for a better experience. As horizons grow and I hear more about the world Ghana just keeps coming up. So let's hear the 4 enjoyable rumors I've heard from everyone who hears me so much as mutter Ghana.

1. The most friendly people they've ever encountered.
2. Great music, art, dance and history.
3. Fufu and other amazing dishes.
4. A very unique (from a British Columbian point of view) physical landscape.

Could the stars have a aligned more perfectly then to offer me this exchange? Yes, actually.

Try it's also a women's program and an AEC program!

Now to explain...

A women's program is a Canada World Youth exchange where all the participants are women and they focus and issues around women and women's health. Most of you know that I'm an awful feminist, but that's why this is a wonderful opperunity to learn something I know nothing about!

An AEC program offers an accreditation for completing a portfolio during the program. I only have speculation on what the diploma is in, and what AEC actually stands for, but I'm sure things will sort themselves out.



This blog itself is going to be a little different for those of you who read my Katimavik blog, at least I hope it is. Since this program is going to involve a lot of making the most of my time, seizing the day, jumping in the lake one more time, and other adventure slogans I'm looking for something more brief. but frequent. As opposed to keeping a lengthy journal of my time, I want to give more little adventures in the moment, hopefully with lot of pictures!

With that I welcome you to follow my adventure as much as your schedule and my allows. So, let's let the fun begin!