Well the lead up to this year's trip has definitely been a different one! VIU spent a month on strike and now we are working hard to clear up one semester before moving into the next! I think that it will work out but man it is going to be nutty!
This year's trip is a little different. I will be spending the month of May in Ghana with six Canadian students. We will be spending the month conducting research on the potential for community-based ecotourism to help alleviate poverty. The communities that we willbe in are Wechiau and Larabanga. Wechiau Community hippo sanctuary is located in the Upper West region and Larabanga is located in the Northern region of Ghana - both regions have extreme poverty and the UN estimates that 70% of the population lives below the extreme poverty line!
The second 1/2 of my trip will be spent in east Africa. I will spend a week in Kampala Uganda where I will be presenting at the ATLAS Africa conference (talking about our work in Ghana and its potential for enviro Ed and ecotourism), after that I am off to Nairobi Kenya where I am hoping to meet with the Greenbelt Movement but that's still not confirmed. My final destination is Arusha Tanzania where I will spen about 3 weeks and am attending meetings for the Protected Areas and Poverty Reduction project... And if ALL goes well (I.e., I don't over spend) I will take a balloon ride over the Serengetti!!!!! :)
Any way - back to the preparations! I am currently At the walk-in clinic waiting to get my anti-malarial mess and other necessary drugs for travel. Yesterday was a right off as I ended up getting a tooth pulled and the drugs from that made me woozy!
Well the doctors appointment was quick and now all my travel meds are ordered! I managed to get a bunch of paper work done including the revisions to our ethics application! :) now it is time to get the biggest thing off my desk... My grading!
