Mackenzie Blogs-It’s the Final Countdown!!!
Mackenzie’s Blog
12 hours, we leave for the airport in twelve hours. As I sit writing this (and staring at the huge mound of stuff I must fit into my backpack!) I wonder where have the last four months of my life have gone? Four months ago I sat in a classroom with 50 other people getting the information on Project Peru 2010 and during that meeting I text my mom and said “I want to go to Peru!!,” little did she know four months later I would be packing up my backpack to hop on a plane to South America.
When I applied for ASB my parents were not all that thrilled, it meant coming up with more money on top of tuition, books, rent, etc. and they weren’t keen on the idea of me being 6205 kilometers away, yet to me none of this mattered. ASB was a fabulous opportunity and a great life experience and I knew the rest would fall into place. They had no idea how this would change their “little girl”. And man, has it ever.
I have learned so much already, from fundraising, to grant writing, basic Spanish (cause lets not kid ourselves, Spanish was not my forte), teamwork skills, that’s what she said jokes, information on Voluntourism and the impacts of international development and just enjoying others company. And we haven’t even left yet!
Our weekly meetings have become the highlight of my week, I have laughed to the point of tears at those meetings and developed some fantastic friendships. On top of having fun, we have all worked SO hard (especially our fearless, INCREDIBLE leaders!!) I am extremely proud of how much we have accomplished as a group and cant wait to see what we do in Peru!
After four months of hard work, frustration, disappointment (due to the floods), excitement, anxiousness, fear, really any emotion you can think of its all about to pay off. I will be on a plane in 15 hours for what I am sure will be one of the best experiences of my life, with 15 AMAZING people. Bring on more hard work, altitude sickness, early mornings, cold showers, lots of laughs (and I’m sure tears as well!) floods, rain, life lessons, I’m ready! (Aside from the packing part! I guess I should probably get on that!)