Next Stop: Africa

When I left Atlanta almost six weeks ago, I really had no idea where I was going to end up teaching. I wanted to teach in Crete but I was open to any number of possibilities. After being in Crete for about two weeks I realized two things. First, there weren't many teaching jobs in Crete. The school year had already started and apparently there are already lots of teachers on the island. And even if there were jobs, schools are much more likely to hire EU nationals since it is much easier for them to get work visas. In fact, there were three American girls who took the certification course in August and they stayed in Crete looking for work and still haven't found anything. Second, and more importantly, I realized that living in Greece would not present a significant challenge to me. Greece is a beautiful country and I absolutely love this place, but I have lived here before and I am very comfortable here. One of the main reasons I began this journey was to challenge myself and broaden my worldview and to be honest, that wouldn't happen in Greece. So I started thinking about other place I would want to live and I kept thinking about Africa. I have been to Kenya twice and I have always wanted to see more of that incredible continent. So I started looking for jobs teaching Enlish in Africa and found that most of them were in Northern Africa. One place that caught my eye was Sudan. All I had heard about Sudan was the Darfur conflict so I was suprised to see that there were English teaching jobs there. But after doing some research, I found that many parts of Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, were very safe and secure. So I applied to a job in Khartoum kind of on a whim. However, they got back to me and after a phone interview, offered me a job. I spent the next couple of days doing some serious research and some soul searching, I decided I would go for it. Living and teaching in Sudan will definitely present some significant challenges, but it will also be a great adventure and I know I will learn so much about myself and about a completely different culture. So as I said last night, this blog is about to take a very different turn. I will try to write as often as I can but I'm not sure about internet connectivity. I know there's internet at my school but we'll just have to see. So please keep me in your prayers as I embark on this next stage of my crazy odyssey. Next time you hear from me I'll be under the African sun!