Accepted!

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Oct 1st 2017

I got an email about 4:30 on Friday afternoon confirming that I would be heading to Wellington in just over a weeks time to attend a training workshop/briefing with Volunteer Service Abroad, a New Zealand based NGO involved in development work throughout the Pacific region. It was confirmation that I’d be accepted to head to Kiribati as a volunteer English Language trainer. I was elated. The late afternoon sun streamed in through the lounge windows looking out towards the distant Kakanui mountains as I cranked up Leilani by the Hoodoogurus.

Somewhere on a South Pacific island 
Sits a young man staring at the surf. 
His native girlfriend died a death quite violent 
A tribal sacrifice made to the earth.
Woo oo woo oo oo…


 Okay, so Keribati is a coral atoll and not a volcanic island but hey, the thought was there!  I had been waiting all week for the news that I’d made it through the first interview and was really stoked that my journey towards volunteering was one step closer.

So what next? I’m off to Nelson next weekend for the South Island Masters and then will be heading to Wellington for a four day briefing which will give me a better idea of what to expect in the year ahead. 

I am still fizzing about the whole thing really. I know Kiribati will be one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in a long, long time and that it will test me in ways that I can’t even start to imagine but I know it is what I want to do and that it is something that I’ve wanted to do, and in many ways been working towards, for a long, long time.

Still a few hurdles to overcome before I get through and begin my role but the process has begun...

Craig

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