The Visa is here!

It's official. The visa has arrived. The tickets are booked. On Sunday, at 2pm, I am leaving Nelson to work in Solomon Islands for three months! Crazy stuff!

My Itinerary

Over the past few months the details of this trip have been slowly falling into place, and now -its game on!

The Visa!

For a bit of background; I have been selected to be the first Downer graduate to take part in a new partnership with VSA (volunteer service abroad).

I will be working as an advisor to the Solomon Islands government on educational infrastructure projects. At the end of three months I will hand over to the next Downer graduate and the project will continue.

The good folk at VSA have published a great article on their website about our assignment and the Downer partnership;

Simon Trotter is the first in a series of six cadets over two years to do much-needed maintenance on classrooms and other school buildings in bad need of repair. VSA Solomon Islands Programme Manager Alexa Funnell says, “the VSA/Downer volunteers will be a big boost to the capacity of Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, and with this extra support and expertise it is anticipated that the current projects will progress in a more timely manner.”