I had lived a quite sheltered life and had never been away from my home country of Kenya. Getting the opportunity to become an exchange volunteer in Senegal was met with mixed reactions, I was happy to travel and see the world doing what I love which is giving back to the community but also, I was sad because I would be moving away from my family. CorpsAfrica/Kenya helped to make sure I was at the airport by 2:00 am so as not to miss my flight. It was my first time traveling on a plane and I was a bit afraid since I was traveling alone.

Most people at the Ethiopian Airways could not speak English and it was a bit tricky to ask for help. I finally found my terminal and sat waiting. I heard someone calling out my name and looking at them I found it was the Exchange Volunteers from Malawi and Rwanda. I quickly hugged them and I was relieved that I was no longer alone. A stranger couldn’t be able to tell that I was meeting them for the first time.

By the time we reached Senegal, you couldn’t tell who was from Malawi and who was from Kenya. We all had one goal which is promoting sustainable development and this made us close. Being part of CorpsAfrica made us feel like we belonged to one family. CorpsAfrica/Senegal staff welcomed us warmly at the airport with a promise of eating ceebujen which our trainer had highly praised.