While the rest of Thompson is shivering away the winter months, Kate MacDonald will be battling arid climates while volunteering as an art teacher in Kenya.
"I was at the point in my life where I'm not going to get a job yet, so this seemed like the perfect time to get this done," she explains. "It's always been something I've wanted to do."
MacDonald graduated from Brandon University this spring with a degree in fine arts, and then decided that the time was right to fulfill that dream and teach in the eastern African nation.
She'll be accompanied on the trip by her boyfriend Kyle Froese - also 23 years old and a recent Brandon graduate, but unlike MacDonald, from the rural community of Roland, north of Winkler and best known for the annual Roland Pumpkin Fair.
"He's going to teach too, but probably more science and English," says MacDonald of Froese. The two will be gone for a total of 14 weeks - plus a stopover in Europe for traditional tourist traveling - leaving at the end of November and returning in early April.
MacDonald and Froese will be living and teaching at an orphanage school in Naivasha, a Thompson-sized market town northwest of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, located within the Rift Valley.
"We applied through IVHQ, which is International Volunteer Headquarters," MacDonald explains. "They're a blanket organization that connects with local organizations. They connected us with a group in Kenya. There's going to be a few local people running things, but it'll be mostly volunteers. They rely pretty heavily on people coming in. It'll be mostly elementary-school-aged kids, but there will be a few kids up to age 13."
After graduating from Brandon, MacDonald and Froese began fundraising for the trip through craft sales, face-painting, and anything else they could think of. "We had a goal between the two of us for $3,000, and we're $200 away, so we're pretty happy," says MacDonald. To get classroom experience before the trip, MacDonald - who previously taught art classes for children at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon - has been working in Thompson as a substitute teacher.
Unsure what to expect as far as supplies and equipment, MacDonald says the couple will be tugging along a box full of school supplies and sports equipment. "I'm not sure if they have a lot of after-school sports," she says. "That's something that I really liked growing up in Thompson. Kyle was really into it as well." As the school they will be at takes a break during December, the couple will be spending their first month working on community infrastructure-building projects.
"I'd like to do printmaking with them," she continues. "Printmaking you can do with a block of wood, and just cut a design into it, ink it up and print it on paper, so that's something I think the kids would be able to do. I love art. I've been doing art since I was a child. I can't imagine doing anything else."
MacDonald has traveled abroad before, including a semester of study in China, but this is her first experience as an international volunteer. She's been brushing up on her Swahili in preparation, and admits to being a little worried about living in the migratory path of some very large animals. "They have what's known as the big five - elephants, rhinos, hippos, lions, and I think the last one is wildebeests," she explains. "We're going to be in the Rift Valley, that's their main migration route."
"We're going to be living with a Kenyan family, they're going to be cooking for us and taking care of us," says MacDonald. "We'll call them mom and dad when we're there. I'm really excited for that. There's a few different host families in the area, and they're not really sure where we're going to be placed until we get there." They have, however, MacDonald says, been in contact with the program director at their school, who seems eager to work with them.
Living conditions will also be different than what MacDonald and Froese are used to - "there's spotty electricity and no hot water some of the time," says MacDonald - but they are still excited for the opportunity, even if MacDonald does quickly admit that her friends and family are worried at times.
"I'm trying to keep a blog while I'm there to keep contact with some people and reassure my mom and dad that I'm okay," she says. The blog - which can be found at kylekateandkenya.blogspot.com - has actually been running since September, with MacDonald and Froese using it for updates on their fundraising activities, as well as preparations such as immunization shots and travel plans.
