A Thankful Voluntour Experience

I knew this would be a special experience.  For months, we had been planning the first ever BLOOM Voluntour, where we would offer the opportunity for people to travel to Lesotho and South Africa with us.  After the applications came in and we had our six volunteers chosen, I just had a feeling that this would be a special group.  Well, I vastly underestimated the sheer awesomeness this group of volunteers would bring to Lesotho, us and to one another.

So to be perfectly honest, I was a bit nervous about how the volunteers would react to our time in Lesotho.  Because we value relationships and communities as an organization, this meant we weren’t heading to Africa to “save” anyone, build for anyone or do for anyone.  Sure, this isn’t what a typical “mission trip” looks like, so I didn’t know what our volunteers would think.

Well, after just a few short days in Lesotho, I think it started to make sense for the group. We were enjoying the beautiful experiences of simply being in community.  We spent a day at Leratong Community Center, which we fund, and didn’t do anything but play games with all the kids there.  After our time at the Center, we hiked up a mountain to see some dinosaur footprints and were accompanied by many of the children we had been with earlier.  The beauty of the landscape and those we were sharing it with was truly unlike anything we’ve experienced before.  This is how we have developed as an organization, by building community first.  As we continue to grow our work at Community Learning Centers, this group of volunteers will know exactly how those foundations were built.

I don’t need to dive into many more details about the trip since you can find the blogs written by our volunteers below.  But I have to say, publicly, how honored I am to have shared this experience with William and 6 others on the Voluntour with me.  As I said in previous blogs, I was most looking forward to seeing how others would react to being in Lesotho for the first time, and seeing their smiles and emotions and reactions.  Well I certainly got my wish and basked in that during the entire 11 day trip.

No one can ever take away the experience we had, made so wonderful because of all of our gracious hosts along the way in Lesotho and South Africa.  I know that Lesotho and BLOOM Africa have 6 new friends, advocates and lifelong supporters.  I also know that I will never forget the special times spent with this group and will forever cherish my time with them.

  

I hope many of you find adventures to embark on, and never shy away from an experience that could possible change your life forever.

Salang hantle,

Andrew