Yayyyyy! I got the final OK for my 2 month sabbatical to Cape Town, South Africa from end of May to end of July!!
I will be volunteering at a non-profit org called Ikamva Labantu, which helps poorer communities become self sustaining since during the Apartheid. It was started by a lady named Helen Lieberman who initially helped women in these poverty stricken townships. My friend Matt volunteered there last summer, before starting at P&G, and through him I have this awesome connection :) I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing yet, but I guess I'll see what they need me for when I get there!
Sabbatical, you say? But, Nadia, you JUST started at P&G... That's right. Under P&G's HR terms, you can take a sabbatical for up to 3 months after 1 full year of employment, once every 7 years. So, the sooner, the better, right? Granted, I'm not getting paid, but at least I still get my benefits :) I always ALWAYS wanted to go to South Africa AND go to the World Cup and guess what? they're both happening this summer. A week of vacation would not be enough for such a trip (plus, I'm almost out of days anyways...), so I looked into taking a sabbatical and tada! I figured while I'm there for a while, I might as well do something that I'm passionate about!
So now with my final approvals from management, HR, and Employee Relations (thank them all), I can finally feel confident about buying my plane ticket. Also, this sabbatical will be in between my role rotations at work, so it's not negatively effecting my work :) Hopefully when I come back, I'll have a job (I'm working on that right now...)
So, right. Plane ticket next. I'm waiting til Monday to purchase b/c there's a slight slight chance prices will go down... if they go up, I'll have to kick myself. Through Couchsurfing, I've already found myself a place in the middle of Cape Town to stay for the month of June for a mere ~$250. Working things out for July, but I'm not too worried. (I really do at one point need to have a post dedicated to Couchsurfing... it's been an amazing part of my life already.) OH! And I have a ticket for the Netherlands vs. Cameroon game!!!! YEAHHHH! SO excited!
Will need to get yellow fever vaccination at some point as well. And the downside of buying a place... still need to pay mortgage for the 2 months I won't be here. Maybe I can somehow work out a deal with a friend or P&G intern renting it while I'm gone...
AHHHH I'M SO EXCITED! I've heard amaaazing things about Cape Town... it's probably a good thing I'm buying a roundtrip ticket. I. can't. wait.
Granted, I probably won't be able to travel between now and then, so the posts in the next 3 months will probably be about SA preparation. I'll try to keep it interesting :P
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