Session Round Up

By Dante Losardo:

Hey Everyone! Dumela for the last time,

Things have come to an end for me at the BNOC. I’ve been finished for a few weeks now and I cannot believe that time flew by so fast. I officially finished on the 14th of last month but I spent the last few weeks traveling around Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. These countries were all so beautiful with so much to do and I wish that I had more time to explore further and see even more than I did.

To start off this post however I will begin where I left off in my last post and talk about the last few weeks of the swimming program and the end of session fun-day.

The last few weeks of the program went by quickly, but with some bumps along the way. It seemed that attendance started to decline as the lessons progressed, however the children that continued to show up and participate greatly improved from the first week of lessons. This was evident on the learn to swim fun-day that we hosted to show the parents of the children how much they had learned from the last six weeks. On the fun-day the weather wasn’t as nice as we had hoped (it was cloudy and a little chilly at around 22 degrees), and that lead to attendance being a bit down as well. In total 11 out of 19 kids showed up with their parents to swim and enjoy some food afterwards out by the pool. I hope more children are able to benefit from this learn-to-swim program, particularly as I saw firsthand how much they enjoyed their time spent in the water!

After my time at the BNOC I took some time before leaving Africa to travel around a bit and see some things I otherwise would have missed. My parents flew down from Toronto to meet me in Johannesburg and we spent the next two weeks visiting Durban, Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park, and Kruger National Park. All of these places were quite different, but provided a great opportunity for me to see a lot of different things and really maximize my adventure on the other side of the world.

Right now in Victoria Falls it is in the wet season so the mist was crazy and we got soaked at some points! I probably should have listened to our guide and worn my rain coat. In Chobe we were able to see a huge elephant herd walk right by our truck and in the river which was truly an amazing sight to see and in Kruger (and Sabi Sands), we were able to see a huge variety of different animals, including the big 5 (Buffalo, Lion, Leopard, Rhino, and Elephant!).

I am extremely glad that I was able to experience everything that I did over the past few months and I am very grateful to the BNOC for having me and welcoming into their offices. Also, I would like to thank CGC and Brock for providing me with this once in a lifetime opportunity to gain experience in the workforce in a very fun and fulfilling manner, while experiencing a new country on the other side of the world!

Cheers,

Dante Losardo

P.S. A shout out to Trevor and Elizabeth who are the next QE Scholars who are currently down in Botswana now. I hope you both have a great time working with volleyball and really make the best of the opportunity that you have!

P.P.S, Here are some of the pictures from my trip!