A Global Understanding through Study Abroad

Santa Fe College graduate Abigail Dumonceau visits with Dr. Vilma Fuentes several years after graduating from SF and receiving award notice for the Boren Scholarship for study abroad funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP).  Unfortunately, Abigail has yet to travel since the award notification due to study abroad limitations brought on by the worldwide Covid19 pandemic.

Abigail has always had an interest in international studies.At age 17, through a voluntourism trip she describes the transformative experience which she describes as an awakening, making her more genuine and authentic in her daily practice after returning to the United States. 

Abigail recalls fondly her participation in SF Student Life organizations like the Global Society club and the Model U.N. She discusses how learning to develop policy and exposure to foreign delegations, along with studying abroad in Sweden provided invaluable experiences and boosted her confidence to pursue the National Security scholarship. 

After a long wait, Abigail announces upcoming plans to return to South Africa. Now, equipped with the knowledge of the Zulu language, courtesy of the African Flagship Language Initiative Program at the University of Florida.  She hopes to utilize the trip to support her argument that natural resources are critical to national security. Combing her interests in wildlife ecology, conservation, and sociology. 

After two years study abroad programs will begin in 2023 at SF, to find out more visit sfcollege.edu/studyabroad. 

Transcript

00;00;00;08 - 00;00;28;29
Speaker 1
Welcome to Santa Fe College. My name is Vilma Fuentes, and this is our podcast, Developing Global Citizens. Today we are joined by Abigail Doman, Sue, a former Santa Fe College student graduate who is well achieving all sorts of things ever since leaving our campus. And I am honored, Abby, to have you here today and to have you share with us a little bit about your life and your story.

00;00;29;00 - 00;00;45;02
Speaker 1
So welcome. 

Thank you. Thank you.

 So, Abby, you graduated from Santa Fe in was a 2020. Yes. Great time, right when COVID was hitting. Okay. And and so what happened to you then? You graduated and went where?

00;00;45;15 - 00;00;59;18
Speaker 2
So while I was at Santa Fe, I won a Border and National Security Scholarship. And from there I was accepted into USC before I started my classes that would go towards my sociology.

00;00;59;18 - 00;01;03;27
Speaker 1
So. University of Florida. USC. 

Yes. 

Okay. Just for people who don't know.

00;01;04;23 - 00;01;30;10
Speaker 2
Okay. So University of Florida, go Gators. So before I did before I started my classes with sociology, I did the African Foreign Language Initiative Program or AFLIP for short where I did intensive 8 hours a day of Zulu. And at the time, because of COVID, we normally would have gone in-person. But instead, I did it online over Zoom.

00;01;31;14 - 00;01;57;28
Speaker 2
And then once I did that for two months over the summer, started my classes. We continue doing like a Zulu maintenance program for one semester, but for the last two and a half years, my travel has been on hold because of COVID. And so now after graduating, you have a few months ago. So 2022, I have re-enrolled at Santa Fe and will be going to South Africa for about six months.

00;01;58;04 - 00;02;23;09
Speaker 1
So I think what you're trying to articulate is excellent. And so already when you were at Santa Fe, it was very clear that you had a very, very strong interest in international studies, international programs, foreign languages. Why would I say that, Abby? Because you were doing all these really interesting things while here. Can you share with us what path you were following and why?

00;02;23;15 - 00;02;23;26
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;02;23;26 - 00;02;54;20
Speaker 2
So growing up, I'm from South Florida and there are animals everywhere and my dream was to be the next Steve Irwin. So I actually came to Santa Fe with the plan to go into wildlife ecology and conservation. I realized really quickly that I didn't want to do math and so decided to. I spoke to a few, few professionals in the field and they actually pushed me to go into social sciences and to potentially take a social sciences perspective for conservation.

00;02;55;13 - 00;03;11;15
Speaker 2
And then from there, I went I came to Santa Fe. There were so many opportunities and one of those things was club rush. And so I went to every single table and I signed up for anything I thought was interesting and that I went to all the meetings and I decided to stay with global society because it just felt right.

00;03;11;15 - 00;03;12;13
Speaker 2
And I love the people there.

00;03;12;20 - 00;03;13;24
Speaker 1
What's global society?

00;03;13;25 - 00;03;41;28
Speaker 2
Global society is a student student club here on campus. So we would advocate for anything to do really with international relations. So there's a lot of delegations that come to Santa Fe. We meet directly with them. We would host events both for the delegations, we would promote them, but we also would host our own events as well as another club that I was involved with was the Model United Nations Club.

00;03;42;04 - 00;03;53;04
Speaker 2
And so a lot there's a lot of crossover between global society and model U.N. So we like to learn about the cultural side of things. And then with the model U.N., it was the political side of things, and so they blended really well.

00;03;53;08 - 00;04;10;25
Speaker 1
So in model U.N., it's like a simulation, right, where you simulate what it's like to be in the United Nations and you adopt the persona or you or you you are assigned to represent a country and and and defend their policies, correct?

00;04;11;00 - 00;04;39;21
Speaker 2
Yes. So one of those so one of the things that is really great about the U.N. is that you learn to write policy. And you also very quickly had to learn how to make a point within 30 seconds or a minute and do so in front of a room of 100 people, potentially. So it was very intense and really fun and I met wonderful people there that I've continued to stay friends with for years.

00;04;40;03 - 00;04;54;27
Speaker 2
That was another thing with the clubs and just the environment at Santa Fe. I really was able to kind of find myself and find lifelong relationships in the process, and it was just one of the best decisions that I could have made. Choosing Santa Fe.

00;04;55;06 - 00;05;04;15
Speaker 1
So I know that you interacted with a lot of the foreign delegations that were here. Could you describe some of those groups and interactions? Do you remember them?

00;05;04;27 - 00;05;11;29
Speaker 2
Yes. So we had a delegation from Ukraine, South Africa, Belize.

00;05;12;25 - 00;05;19;25
Speaker 1
Hmm. I think maybe. Didn't you meet an ecologist? They came in from Brazil, maybe?

00;05;19;28 - 00;05;20;29
Speaker 2
Yes. And Brazil.

00;05;21;00 - 00;05;22;03
Speaker 1
Okay. That's a lot.

00;05;22;04 - 00;05;48;23
Speaker 2
There because we typically had around two delegations a semester and I was here for many semesters. But there would be sometimes they would do like a small event. So I remember with Ukraine, that was the first time that I really learned about the occupation of Crimea and just anything global society. I really growing up, I didn't have as much.

00;05;50;20 - 00;06;16;26
Speaker 2
The majority of international relations and international perspective that I got was actually from like a nature perspective. So like Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. And I didn't really learn anything from like traditional education. So to be able to hear firsthand people talking about their experiences or we had one of our professors here at Santa Fe obvious. Mirjana, he was from South Africa.

00;06;16;26 - 00;06;40;04
Speaker 2
And so being able to meet with the delegation that came here talking about apartheid and then be able to also work directly with current faculty and talk about their experiences was just life changing and really just kind of lit the fire for me. I just I love working with people and I love learning and I love I've just discovered that I just really thrive in international spaces.

00;06;40;28 - 00;07;02;24
Speaker 1
So. Abby, so you just outlined several groups that you were exposed to from several different countries, but for some reason, Africa or specifically South Africa resonated with you a little bit more. Why did you take courses related to that? Did you while while you were at Santa Fe, what happened? How do you explain the love for Africa?

00;07;03;06 - 00;07;30;12
Speaker 2
So when I was 17, I went outside of the U.S. for the first time and I went to South Africa for a week, ended a voluntourism trip where you got to go to a game farm. And while I was there, it was a really formative experience in my life because I had a somewhat rough childhood growing up and I was just given just traveling gives you a completely different perspective, but I was treated so respectfully and I was able to really kind of find myself that summer.

00;07;30;27 - 00;08;08;28
Speaker 2
And when I came back to the U.S., I was starting my first kind of real, real job where I went through a whole hiring process. And so I told myself somehow, someway I would go back because I just had such a lovely experience. The people there were just amazing. I felt so welcomed in every interaction that I had with everyone there, and it changed the way that I interacted with people, even with things like going out of my way to greet people because I actually was chewed out at one point when I was in South Africa because I was so used to American culture of kind of just moving along and rushing with things.

00;08;09;16 - 00;08;35;25
Speaker 2
And the person was like, No, we're going to sit down, we're going have a conversation before we do these other things. And so I came back to the U.S. and I just kind of was more authentic and more yeah, I would say more authentic with every interaction that I had. And it changed the trajectory of my life. So being at Santa Fe, I was in a global society and still kind of living by that motto of just doing what I love and what feels right.

00;08;36;14 - 00;09;04;18
Speaker 2
And Santa Fe just had given me every opportunity to continue to pursue that and support me in that path. And there was an event with Charles Blanc from the University of Florida, and so he was talking about learning languages and going abroad. And I saw South Africa on the map. I had actually just been there to kind of advocate for people to come, but what I realized that that was something I was really interested in.

00;09;05;04 - 00;09;11;01
Speaker 2
I went up to him and I said, I want to go to South Africa. And he said, Great, you're going to learn Zulu. And I said, okay.

00;09;11;01 - 00;09;27;18
Speaker 1
So here I am, so, so if I can. So when you started Santa Fe, I know it was very clear that you had this passion for like you were like this little sponge, right? You went to learn all these things about other cultures and other people in the world. And you had had this formative experience in South Africa.

00;09;27;25 - 00;09;36;00
Speaker 1
But did you know, could you envision at the time when you first started here, that how you were you were going to get yourself back to South Africa, or was that all a haze?

00;09;36;06 - 00;09;54;26
Speaker 2
That was all the haze. I just told myself that somehow I would go back. It didn't matter when I just it was just something that I'd always like. The moment I was there, I just felt drawn to South Africa. It wasn't really a plan to ever necessarily live there for six months or work there or do anything else.

00;09;54;26 - 00;09;59;11
Speaker 2
It was just, I'm going to come back somehow and finish what I started.

00;10;00;11 - 00;10;34;18
Speaker 1
And when you met that. So we had a very large delegation here, about 16 people from the all higher education officials from South Africa as part of a community college administrated program, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. And you you met them multiple times, multiple days, whenever you could. I remember there was there was Abby, you know, dancing with the South Africans, talking to the South Africans, like, you know, whatever did they in any way, I don't know, encourage you to keep going and find a way to South Africa?

00;10;35;19 - 00;10;59;14
Speaker 2
Yes, actually, I would say that you played a really big role in that, Vilma, because you had already I, I when I applied for the scholarship, I kind of just did it on a whim without any expectation that I was going to get anything. As much as I love Santa Fe, I never saw myself as being able to do like something so big and get like an in or not or like a national scholarship.

00;10;59;14 - 00;11;12;06
Speaker 2
I never saw that. And the cards. And you were telling them. Oh, yeah. So our student, she'll probably go to South Africa and you, you kind of you believed in that before? I did. And it meant so much to be. I'll cry.

00;11;13;20 - 00;11;15;01
Speaker 1
Someone else is going to cry.

00;11;15;03 - 00;11;40;24
Speaker 2
It's but yeah. I actually like you were so like you kind of supported me before I even thought that I even had the potential of myself. And you did that in so many ways when I became vice president of global society. And I'd be like, you encouraged me. You kind of forced me to go up and talk to people in the whole room and it was so intense for me to be like, Yeah, I'm vice president.

00;11;40;24 - 00;11;57;07
Speaker 2
Yes, I'm president of this club, and I do these things and I run this. I just had such an imposter syndrome and was like, No, I could never do this. Or people everyone thinks I'm fake. And you were just like, No, you're doing this. And I already know you're going to do all these other amazing things. So it was amazing.

00;11;57;07 - 00;12;12;24
Speaker 2
And yeah, and then with the South African delegation, it's just they're they're just amazing. They were the most wonderful people. And I just felt so welcome by them once again. And it I know it just it just felt right.

00;12;13;13 - 00;12;30;14
Speaker 1
Yeah. So this big south. So you had these formative experiences for a week, I guess, this life changing experience. I mean, some of us would just call it study abroad. You didn't study abroad in South Africa? Well, in high school. Okay. So it lit a fire. And then you started this is my reading of your life. I don't know.

00;12;31;00 - 00;12;39;21
Speaker 1
So you started your time here at Santa Fe, were trying all these different things, clubs, activities. Were you taking classes that also had an international focus?

00;12;40;23 - 00;13;07;18
Speaker 2
Yes. So, okay, so I ended up deciding I would go into sociology because for me, I had always felt drawn to psychology, but I wanted to do it from a wider perspective. And so in my head, the way that I think of it is sociology is psychology for groups and societies. So it just kind of fit. And when I took I took this one class sociology one on one, and the class just felt right.

00;13;07;18 - 00;13;28;21
Speaker 2
And also that professor ended up writing me a recommendation letter to go into ambassadors. And she was also someone there's so many, especially there's somebody woman here at Santa Fe campus that have just supported me before. I even saw that in myself. And she wrote me the most heartwarming recommendation letter. And I was like, Wow, like, someone thinks this about me.

00;13;28;27 - 00;13;33;25
Speaker 1
So who is this physiology professor? I'm Doctor Dr. George.

00;13;33;28 - 00;13;35;08
Speaker 2
Johnson, Georgia Bianche.

00;13;35;14 - 00;13;42;29
Speaker 1
Yes, that's what I thought. But you didn't stop with that sociologist, because I think that you followed another one to another part of the world, didn't you?

00;13;42;29 - 00;13;55;22
Speaker 2
Yes. So I decided I had been given the advice in high school that if I wanted to study abroad, which I already knew that I did, I already knew I did want to move around the world. And I've always been very independent and just kind of I can pick up and go anywhere and I'm very happy with that.

00;13;56;17 - 00;14;17;10
Speaker 2
And so I had been given the advice that if I wanted to study abroad, I should do it before my junior year of college, because that's when classes start getting more intense. So starting my second year at Santa Fe, really my second semester at Santa Fe, I looked into the City Abroad program and I looked at all the options and I said, I don't know anything about Sweden.

00;14;17;10 - 00;14;53;00
Speaker 2
I'll do that one. Genuinely, it's always the motto I take on. And so the President of Global Society at the time, Shantel Hover, who is another amazing, phenomenal woman who supported me so much my time here on, she actually had done the Sweden trip as well. And so she gave me the advice that if I wanted to, I could actually craft that study abroad to potentially go with Santa Fe and then from there potentially go to some other countries instead of just coming straight back to Santa Fe.

00;14;53;03 - 00;14;58;18
Speaker 2
If I worked it out with Santa Fe and I did so I took her advice and I did that right.

00;14;58;25 - 00;15;02;03
Speaker 1
And what what class were you taking as part of the study abroad program?

00;15;02;03 - 00;15;24;07
Speaker 2
So I thought that I had to take the class before I did study abroad. So I actually ended up doing the class with Doug DeKoe called marriage in the Family another sociology class. That really kind of changed my perspective too on like relationships and just different ways of viewing them and love in general. And I took that class.

00;15;25;08 - 00;15;46;21
Speaker 2
I would at the time I lived probably like 40 minutes from Santa Fe by bus. And so I would get up at six in the morning and take a bus over to Santa Fe, getting rained on. But I didn't care. I loved the class and I loved being on Santa Fe campus. So I would just spend all day here taking all these classes, doing all this, all the clubs and yeah.

00;15;46;21 - 00;16;12;00
Speaker 2
And then I just took the class and I really loved my time there and then did the study abroad and I ended up doing a one credit class instead over the summer. So we went to Sweden and Denmark and then those of us who took the one credit because there was a few of us, we all did presentations and I decided because I'm I became vegan probably 2017 and I've say vegan since and I learned while I was over there.

00;16;12;27 - 00;16;35;11
Speaker 2
So this was before like Burger King had come out with their Beyond Burger. But I noticed on every single menu it said vegan, no problem, the entire menu we can make vegan. And I was like, wow, like this is so different from the U.S. And so I found out that there had been a punk movement in the seventies in Sweden and part of it was also being vegan.

00;16;35;19 - 00;17;08;11
Speaker 2
And so I actually did like a cross-cultural comparison to veganism in the U.S. and Sweden, which I never would have like discovered at all. I've never heard that before in my life. And so I did Sweden and Denmark and then before coming back, I actually was able to meet my parents in Denmark. And then we went to Prague, Vienna, Paris, Brussels and probably another place.

00;17;09;10 - 00;17;17;14
Speaker 1
So I'm hearing all this and I'm thinking you're a privileged child, that you've been able to go to all these places. Would you describe yourself as privileged?

00;17;19;04 - 00;17;42;03
Speaker 2
I mean, yes or no? My so my parents are from New York and my mother never went to college. She did night school. And my dad did like a semester of college and dropped out. And they've both just kind of done, I guess I would say, nontraditional. And they've just kind of done what worked for them. And here they are today.

00;17;43;16 - 00;18;04;02
Speaker 2
So my mother my mother moved out the house. I think she was like 14 or 15 and she had like a rough childhood growing up. And my dad also had like issues with his mother. And so there was like both of my parents have like somewhat conflict chinnery relationships with their family in certain ways. And that's definitely translated down into my old life.

00;18;05;01 - 00;18;48;00
Speaker 2
But when they came to Florida, they kind of just built themselves up and I was able to go to private school. And so absolutely, I would say that I have had a privileged upbringing in terms of being able to access that. And then in other ways I've still had to deal with just I definitely felt very different going to I went to a Catholic high school and there is definitely a huge income difference in are the students where we had a lot of students that were from like my area around the school that was somewhat lower income.

00;18;48;05 - 00;19;12;17
Speaker 2
And then we had students that lived in mansions and so and we're used to kind of the average everyone has like a very bougie car and that kind of thing. And you could feel kind of like the elite ism and the school and it was very, very uncomfortable to be. And I hadn't grown up with that luckily, but it was definitely I kind of straddled privileged spaces in different ways, I would say.

00;19;12;27 - 00;19;15;10
Speaker 1
So how did it feel coming to Santa Fe College?

00;19;15;16 - 00;19;40;21
Speaker 2
Oh, like home. I loved it. I had there there is no air of that here. So I so the school that I originally went to was monastery. And so it was very like nontraditional. We had a barn and we would do like we would clean our own classrooms and we would do chores around the campus and things like that.

00;19;40;21 - 00;20;02;04
Speaker 2
And we were given like a lot of responsibility, a lot of freedom and smaller class sizes. So going from there to high school was high school I hated. It was just very exhausting all the time and people just didn't really realize like the privilege that they had, but we didn't really know how to talk about it. And then to come to Santa Fe, it was just a breath of fresh air.

00;20;02;29 - 00;20;29;16
Speaker 2
Everyone here, not everyone, but so many of us, you know, work one or two jobs, really value our education. And you could just you could feel the difference. And it was again, it's smaller class sizes. So you get to actually build relationships with your professors and with your peers. And I would say, like once I went to USF, it doesn't feel the same.

00;20;29;16 - 00;20;57;14
Speaker 2
I would say it really depends on the program that you do. I actually decided to go to USF because of I became close with the African Studies Center at UCF and they are in colloquial terms, I'd say like sometimes academia can be very stuffy and that is not the African Study Center. They have something called Barrass. And so I was able to meet professors from all over the world there be someone from Ghana come in to talk about whatever research that they're doing.

00;20;57;14 - 00;21;02;22
Speaker 2
And so I kind of threw myself into that at the same time while still at Santa Fe. And because of them, I decided to go UCF.

00;21;04;05 - 00;21;10;25
Speaker 1
And while at USF. So you followed the African Studies track and that took you also into foreign languages. Tell me about that.

00;21;11;05 - 00;21;35;24
Speaker 2
Yes. So so one guy was the person that said, hey, you should do this program at all, write your recommendation letter and the so the Bourne scholarship, the requirement is you learn a foreign language that's critical to national security. And so you can choose from a variety. But I chose Zulu and the University of Florida does the African Foreign Languages Initiative.

00;21;36;00 - 00;22;01;05
Speaker 2
So everyone for the Bourne Scholarship that is learning an African language comes to Gainesville. And that's where they do the program. So we learn the language, but it's very immersive. So we also like learn how to cook and are just exposed to like different cultural aspects of whatever the language and the people that we're learning about. And so I decided from there to continue a minor in African studies.

00;22;01;15 - 00;22;18;13
Speaker 1
So but so the Center for African Studies offers several African languages, right? So they have Swahili and Yoruba and Arabic and Zulu and Wolof. Why Zulu?

00;22;18;13 - 00;22;43;24
Speaker 2
So I actually was able to meet. So I think it was on suggestion of one guy and I was just I was just ready. I said, okay. I didn't I didn't need like more than than that guidance. But Zulu is spoken. It's one of the most widely spoken languages in South Africa, especially where I'm going, which is Durban.

00;22;45;07 - 00;23;08;18
Speaker 2
And it's just, in my opinion, I would say that if I'm going to learn an indigenous language from South Africa, Zulu is one of the more advantageous languages to learn. If that's something that I decided to in any way when I if I, when I go into federal service, that I would potentially need to know.

00;23;08;26 - 00;23;25;00
Speaker 1
So federal service let's talk about that a little bit. So I, I also remember when you were at Santa Fe that you would attend some of the sessions that we had with our diplomat and resident that would talk about careers in the Foreign Service. Is that what you have in mind or are you thinking about something else potentially?

00;23;26;01 - 00;23;50;22
Speaker 2
So with the Boren Scholarship, I'm required to do one year federal service. It can be anything, although I do know that they do prioritize defense and intelligence. I have been considering going into the Foreign Service where I as I would definitely to my understanding, being in the Foreign Service is really good for people that are kind of a jack of all trades.

00;23;50;22 - 00;24;18;23
Speaker 2
And that is something that I kind of thrive in that environment. But but it is some. So because you're moving around so often, it can be stressful, especially if you have like a family or a partner. So it is an option that I'm considering, but I'm considering very carefully. There is a fellowship that I was looking at potentially applying to that would help me with a master's program.

00;24;18;23 - 00;24;41;29
Speaker 2
But speaking with a number of Foreign Service agents, they've also encouraged me to not only look at the Foreign Service and to consider my other options and that I if I want to potentially go into higher education and do a master's, there are many opportunities within government work that will help me get that master's program, and I don't need to only look at this one program.

00;24;42;04 - 00;24;56;11
Speaker 2
So I kind of panicked because for the last two and a half years, I was on hold about traveling to South Africa and I had looked at this one program, but I'm realizing that I have a lot of other options. I don't need to have my life completely figured out at 22 years old.

00;24;57;06 - 00;25;07;24
Speaker 1
So tell me more about the Boren program. So first of all, describe the application process. How difficult was it? Did you find it was it really hard, intimidating?

00;25;07;24 - 00;25;31;13
Speaker 2
I would say it's intimidating just because I didn't see myself as like a national security potential, like potentially going to national security as a career. And that national security, the word like it or those words, it carries a lot of weight. And I was like, I'm not cut out for this. So that was kind of scary, but I kind of move past that.

00;25;31;13 - 00;26;08;21
Speaker 2
And so the application process, you write two different essays talking about why the language and the area that you're picking is critical to national security as well as like your plans for it. And I was so I met someone who had previous on the scholarship, her name's Jessica and she really helped me through the process. She helps kind of mentor me, explained what she wrote in hers and how what she had been studying, how she kind of took that angle.

00;26;09;11 - 00;26;40;01
Speaker 2
And so I still wanted to do ecology and conservation at the time. I still do. But I think I think my my next few years lie more in diplomacy. But I kind of made the argument that natural resources are critical to national security. South Africa has a lot of tourism and a really just has a lot of economics based around natural resources as well as poaching.

00;26;40;24 - 00;27;00;11
Speaker 2
And so I argued that that would be critical to national security. This is why and Zulu is spoken by a wide portion of population. And so I wanted to take it from that angle. But knowing that, of course, if the government says, hey, do this instead, I would still do that.

00;27;00;23 - 00;27;24;17
Speaker 1
Yeah. And plus, we should also add that South Africa is a country of enormous geostrategic importance in the world and a powerhouse enough in Africa. So. So did you, if I understand this correctly, did you study Zulu first and then you applied to the Bourne scholarship or did you apply to the Bourne Scholarship first? Like what? Where were you when you applied for Bourne?

00;27;24;17 - 00;27;48;14
Speaker 2
So I was at Santa Fe. I applied not thinking I would get it, and then I found out and then COVID hit right in the middle of that. So I the Boren Scholarship paid for the African Foreign Language Initiative at UF. And so the goal was we would learn it. We would hope COVID was over in six months and then we would go abroad.

00;27;49;19 - 00;27;59;14
Speaker 1
So it happened. So you applied to the Boren Scholarship while you were still at Santa Fe? MM Graduated. Made it into UF. When did you hear you had received Boren?

00;27;59;18 - 00;28;00;28
Speaker 2
While I was still at Santa Fe.

00;28;01;03 - 00;28;22;09
Speaker 1
Oh, really? Great. Okay. And then you became a UF student, so now you're U of F student and you receive Boren. And and so now you started studying Zulu there, correct? Yes. So you did that for a while. And now finally, as COVID is starting to get a little bit better, you're finally on your way to South Africa. Yes.

00;28;22;17 - 00;28;26;03
Speaker 1
And so what's the plan? How long are you going are you going for a week, like last time?

00;28;26;03 - 00;28;49;24
Speaker 2
Six months. So I'm planning to live in Durban. And so that Durban is in KwaZulu-Natal, which is where the majority of Zulu speakers live. And so I figured if there's any place to go in South Africa, that's the spot as well as so the person, Jessica, she also put me in contact with a family that she stayed with.

00;28;50;12 - 00;29;08;16
Speaker 2
And so I will actually be staying with them. For the last two years we've stayed in contact and they'll like call me daughter and I just feel so loved and welcome. So they're going to be there to kind of support me as well as hopefully I will also get to work with a delegation that came to Santa Fe a few years ago.

00;29;08;21 - 00;29;31;14
Speaker 1
This is so exciting, Abby. I can't wait to see you go. I hope you don't forget about us. I hope we zoom it and that you're able to connect with so many people that you saw over here and that you'll continue the relationships there. And it's great to see you continue this journey of becoming a global citizen. Thank you.

00;29;31;14 - 00;29;35;02
Speaker 1
Thank you. Okay, so stop, stop, stop crying.