The Countdown

 

UPDATED APRIL 2025

In 21 days I will be leaving my comfort zone. Lately I have been outside of my comfort zone however when needed I could always run back to it, for a short, refreshing while. However this time I have no choice but to endure 3 months outside of my comfort zone, with no possibility of escaping.
One thing for sure is that I am kind of happy about this as it will give me the chance to be socially independent and not rely on my friends and family as social back ups. 

In 21 days I will be leaving home to go and live somewhere I have never been, with people who I've only just met. This is a scary concept and it will test my adaptability among other things. I am excited, although it is very stressing to think that you cannot easily get a hug when your down from your parents, siblings or even friends, there will not be any sort of familiarity apart from those few blurry faces I met three weeks ago. 

So what does the countdown mean? It means i have 21 days to do all the things I need to before disappearing for 3 months (well 2 and a bit now). I have endless amounts of people to visit, things to sort for the next academic year and i need to shop and pack ooo and get my jabs owwwww! Not looking forward to that bit. Visiting all my friends is a priority, having seen them a few times this year a catch-up is needed, long over due even. Also I need to make sure I have passed my first year, the fact that I leave on the 7th and my results are published on the 9th is daunting. I will be abroad when my results come and that is stressful as I'm not sure how well I've done. You can never be sure. The scary thing is not being able to resubmit work as I will be abroad, I am freaking out. 

Also I need to pack, if you know me you know that I go by the rule it's better to over pack than under-pack.  Yep I am that typical girl that carry's way too much and I love it. I love having options and bringing things just in case. I have learned over the past few years that over packing is ALWAYS best- well in my case. So what is my 23 kgs going to include? A whole load of products and clothes. I chose to have my hair braided for this trip as they last long and they also are easy to take care of and I wont need many hair products not even a brush! score!. So that's like 3 kgs of stuff cleared up, since its cold in Southern Africa I need to bring loads of warm clothes and warm clothes are heavy. I must admit I don't have many warm clothes as I'm easily warm and hate heavy clothes they make me feel suffocated therefore i am stuck on what to buy. I will probably end up wearing cardigans instead of Eskimo clothing. I will be THAT girl. 

Carrying on about clothing and stuff, I have to buy torches and stuff, I don't want to buy an expensive torch although they last longer only because I know I will break it, loose it or it will fall into the icky toilet during late night toilet runs. At the same time cheap ones are unreliable and might cause me to get stuck in the pitch black night.

Moving on, the last thing on my list is Jabs (Vaccines). I have to get six different jabs SIX, I MEAN SIX. AND SOME REQUIRE TWO OR THREE SHOTS!! *faints*. I may be coming across as a drama queen but I don't care. I really don't. Jabs are by far not my favourite things. As a child I frequented the doctors and too many needles scared me. I HATE needles. I don't look forward to that part. That is all I'm saying about this. Best stop before I feel sick.

Anyways I hope that this post gave you a bit of insight on my current situation and progress with this impending trip.

Its not too late to donate by the way my just giving page is http://www.justgiving.com/Ruth-Mapanda

Thanks for reading

Peace and Love
Ruth Mapanda
ICS AND RESTLESS DEVELOPMENT SA VOLUNTEER.