Ontario SALTer's Gathering

Last night 7 out of 8 of us Ontario SALTer's met for the first time. We met at the MCC office in Kitchener, where we started with a light dinner prepared by Cath Woolner (MCC Human Resources, Ontario office), and got started right away with introductions and where everybody is going. We were all able to ask lots of questions and learned from each other how things were going and also learned any helpful traveling tips from those who have lived and traveled and abroad. Before we left we took a group photo. Listed below are my fellow Ontario SALTer's minus one and their country of placement.

L-R front row of the picture are Kim Walker (Bolivia), Iris Suggett (India), Adrienne Schellenberg (Bolivia). L-R back row, me (South Africa), Katie Friesen (Chad), Simon Martin (Lesotho), and Ben Reesor (Bangladesh). Absent was Yolanda Weima (Burundi or Rwanda) not sure which.

Next time we will meet again and the rest of the SALTer's will be August 8th in Akron PA at orientation. It was a great night. Sorry we missed you Yolanda.

I am hoping by next week I'll get my visa sent off to the South African Consulate General in Toronto. Just have to do a good copy of the application form and bundle everything up and mail off. The rest of my paper work is slowly getting filled out soon will be ready to mail off too.

I just finished the other week the book 28 Stories of Aids in Africa. It was a very interesting and eye opening book and I learned lots too from it. Reading peoples stories of how Aids has affected them and what they have done since learning of their disease. Some of them have reached out and helped others, some have become activists with bringing awareness to the disease and trying to get medical treatment to help others and themselves, and also trying to teach others how to protect themselves and others from it too. So now I'm concentrating on the book Long Walk to Freedom, Autobiography of Nelson Mandela.

Still much to do in 6 1/2 more weeks.

Signing off..