Thursday, September 25 ("Feeling the Crunch"/ sailing to Cape Town): Feeling a little stressed today and wondering what have I gotten myself into?! Prepping for NASDEV & Residence Committee Leadership Workshop. Lots to accomplish. Ah!

Friday, September 26 ("Six Degrees of Seperation"/ Cape Town): We're here! This is the first port that I've been awake to see from the distance. As I got dressed, I could see clouds hovering above Table Top Mountain, boats floating in the water, and birds circling around. While in Cape Twon, I will be facilitating a Student Leadership Workshop, attending and presenting at a professional staff conference, and going on safari with Christy.

Christy Lunceford was a PhD student when I was a masters student at Michigan State. We had been friends at MSU, but lost touch after moving. In March we reconnected at ACPA and she told me she worked at the University of the Western Cape to collect data for her dissertation. We stayed in touch and a few months after ACPA Christy told me she planned to temporarily move to Cape Town to work as an independent consultant for the University of the Western Cape (until her faculty position starts at Long Beach in January).

In the meantime, May 2008, I traveled with a UMD delegation to South Africa. During that trip I met Marc Seale, University of the Western Cape and Eric Sebokedi, Deputy Director of Student Affairs at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. I felt so inspired during my initial visit that I told Eric & Marc I would be interested in assisting with future student leadership conferences…and told him I'd return to Cape Town with SAS. We also figured out that we all knew Christy…I'd completely forgotten that she'd worked at UWC (duh)...it's a small world with six degrees of seperation.

Shortly after my first visit to Cape Town, Eric & Marc visited UMD for a few days and that's when we started discussing the possibility of me consulting for his university. It seemed like a great opportunity and I hoped to earn a few bucks too. A few weeks after that conversation Eric asked if I would also present at NASDEV (National Association of Student Development Practitioners) Conference, which happened to coincide with the student leadership workshop. I was slightly hesitant and told Eric that I had to make time for safari; his response, "sure, we'll send you and Christy on safari". Simple.

Now I'm wandering what I got myself into, especially with these conferences…we'll see. Anyway, that's why I've been stressing. And, sailing from Namibia to Cape Town was only two days, which I knew but didn't plan for particularly well. I sat alone at breakfast this morning in an attempt to review my materials. Thank goodness Professor Kesho saw me as I was about to exit the dining room. I told her I was stressing about my presentations and she offered to be a sounding board. She "approved" of everything but one part, but she made a few other suggestions for me to consider, which was very helpful. Feeling better now. Alright, Mervyn will be picking me up in just a bit. I will be in Durban until October 1st. Stay tuned!