For those who are new to my blog, my name is Cate Maslan. I have grown up in Edwards, Colorado with the Rocky Mountains in my backyard. I am sixteen years old and any time I am not in school, I can typically be found on the stage, in the dance studio, or at the soccer field. This upcoming summer will be my third trip with Children’s Global Alliance (CGA), and I will be traveling to Arusha, Tanzania. I first learned about CGA in elementary school, when my older sister participated on her first CGA trip. My brother soon began to travel with CGA as well, and by the time I was old enough to apply, my older siblings had made me determined to participate in this life changing experience.
My first trip with CGA was to Rivas, Nicaragua, where I served at a school for children with special needs. My second trip was to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where I taught English at three different schools and made improvements to an Orphanage 45 minutes outside of the city. After two years off, I am absolutely thrilled to be travelling with CGA again. This year, I will be going to Arusha, Tanzania, where I will teach at L.O.A.M.O and visit an off-site baby orphanage. L.O.A.M.O is a school that has become home to 250 wonderful students ranging from baby class to grade seven. I will be making my own lesson plans and teaching a variety of subjects, as well as delivering supplies to the children I work with.
This is very different from my past trips because I did not typically implement my own lesson plans in Nicaragua, and I only taught english in Cambodia. I am very excited to take the next step and apply my own lesson plans to a variety of subjects at a more advanced level. My perspective of the word has been completely changed because of my past trips, and I can not wait to see how I will grow and change on my trip to Tanzania. I have been on a total of five service trips with multiple organizations, and on every trip, I have completely fallen in love with the children I work with. Of course I am excited to see another country and learn about the culture of Tanzania, but there is nothing I am more excited about than making another family around the world.
Over the next eight months, I will be posting updates about the preparations for my trip and my emotions as the trip grows closer on this blog. I will also be posting blogs more frequently once I get to Tanzania in July. Thank you so much for following me on this journey. I am incredibly grateful to have this opportunity, and I can’t wait to share everything I learn through this experience with you. By biggest goal is to take advantage of every aspect of my trip and not let any part of it pass me by without growing as an individual and helping those around me. After all,
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
