It's the day. I'm at YVR officially writing my first blog. It's been a whirlwind of a week after pre-departure training in Ottawa in the first week of April. I'm excited and nervous. Also, I never thought saying goodbye would be so hard ... even though it's only temporary.
A quick re-cap of pre-departure training:
Myself and 14 other like-minded young Canadians who love sport and want to use it to make positive change overseas went through 5 days of exciting and intense training. We learned more about the structure of Commonwealth and Olympic organizations, grant/funding opportunities, how to be cross-culturally effective people, and much more. It was such an interesting week especially with such an amazing group of individuals! Special thanks to Raymond, our facilitator for most of the week who wished us "all the pain and suffering in the world, but not in a bad way." We were definitely warned that this year will not be easy, but I felt it also really fired me up to take on any of the challenges I might face.
So what was all this training preparing us for? 15 of us going to 15 different Commonwealth countries and nations around the world including the Caribbean, South America, Africa, South Asia, and Pacific Islands. All of us are Capacity Support Officers (CSOs) placed by Commonwealth Games Canada (CGCs) to countries and nations that applied to have a Capacity Support Officer. All of us only have one part of the internship description in common: Zeus. Zeus is Commonwealth Games Federation's (CGF) games management system that stores and manages data for national teams. We will be learning with someone from our host organization what Zeus does then assist them in designing what they need it to do and implementing it. Then we teach other staff/volunteers/athletes/delegates to use it (or at least that might be the goal). So aside from that, my projects with the Sri Lanka National Olympic Committee (NOC) and Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) may include grant writing, fundraising, evaluation of National Sports Organizations (NSOs) and improving their use of social media. My workplan will be developed over the next month or so with my supervisor once I arrive.
So what else can I tell you? I have an apartment that is close to work ... and I'm deathly afraid of cockroaches. They make spiders pretty insignificant! I settle in for just over a week and then on April 27th I make another long trip to Wellington, New Zealand for a week where we'll go through intense Zeus training. Then it's back to Colombo, Sri Lanka until our midterm about 6 months from now in a place to be determined. Colombo is not easy to get to but if you are thinking about going on an adventure, please come visit!
So I have no idea where this will take me and I'm excited for this opportunity and any others that will arise. But I do know that the last two and a half years at Special Olympics BC had a large part in shaping me into the person that was able to successfully become a Capacity Support Officer with Commonwealth Games Canada. So, thank you to everyone that I got to meet and work with at SOBC. Thank you to my friends and family in the last little while in supporting me to go on this journey. You all mean the world to me and I'm so happy to know that I have a reliable network to lean on when I need it. And to my new network of friends with CGC, I'm looking forward to developing an even stronger bond with all of you!
Alright ... I think it's time for me to start moving to my departure gate. 13 hours to Hong Kong, then 7 hours to Colombo. Until next time I have internet!!!
A quick re-cap of pre-departure training:
Myself and 14 other like-minded young Canadians who love sport and want to use it to make positive change overseas went through 5 days of exciting and intense training. We learned more about the structure of Commonwealth and Olympic organizations, grant/funding opportunities, how to be cross-culturally effective people, and much more. It was such an interesting week especially with such an amazing group of individuals! Special thanks to Raymond, our facilitator for most of the week who wished us "all the pain and suffering in the world, but not in a bad way." We were definitely warned that this year will not be easy, but I felt it also really fired me up to take on any of the challenges I might face.
So what was all this training preparing us for? 15 of us going to 15 different Commonwealth countries and nations around the world including the Caribbean, South America, Africa, South Asia, and Pacific Islands. All of us are Capacity Support Officers (CSOs) placed by Commonwealth Games Canada (CGCs) to countries and nations that applied to have a Capacity Support Officer. All of us only have one part of the internship description in common: Zeus. Zeus is Commonwealth Games Federation's (CGF) games management system that stores and manages data for national teams. We will be learning with someone from our host organization what Zeus does then assist them in designing what they need it to do and implementing it. Then we teach other staff/volunteers/athletes/delegates to use it (or at least that might be the goal). So aside from that, my projects with the Sri Lanka National Olympic Committee (NOC) and Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) may include grant writing, fundraising, evaluation of National Sports Organizations (NSOs) and improving their use of social media. My workplan will be developed over the next month or so with my supervisor once I arrive.
So what else can I tell you? I have an apartment that is close to work ... and I'm deathly afraid of cockroaches. They make spiders pretty insignificant! I settle in for just over a week and then on April 27th I make another long trip to Wellington, New Zealand for a week where we'll go through intense Zeus training. Then it's back to Colombo, Sri Lanka until our midterm about 6 months from now in a place to be determined. Colombo is not easy to get to but if you are thinking about going on an adventure, please come visit!
So I have no idea where this will take me and I'm excited for this opportunity and any others that will arise. But I do know that the last two and a half years at Special Olympics BC had a large part in shaping me into the person that was able to successfully become a Capacity Support Officer with Commonwealth Games Canada. So, thank you to everyone that I got to meet and work with at SOBC. Thank you to my friends and family in the last little while in supporting me to go on this journey. You all mean the world to me and I'm so happy to know that I have a reliable network to lean on when I need it. And to my new network of friends with CGC, I'm looking forward to developing an even stronger bond with all of you!
Alright ... I think it's time for me to start moving to my departure gate. 13 hours to Hong Kong, then 7 hours to Colombo. Until next time I have internet!!!
Woohoo!!! I am so excited for you :D Keep up the blogging!!
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