Life Begins at the End of Comfort Zone

I will never forget the day that I first arrived in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport filled with excitement and great fear at the same time. Before arriving in Moscow city to do my international internship program, I had planned my arrival to be as safe as possible but unfortunately it did not go according to my plan. The lady who was supposed to meet me at the airport bailed out on me and I was starting to have a panic attack. I had already entered Russia with a lot of fear because even Russians in Toronto had warned me of robbery, kidnapping of young girls for sex trafficking, extreme racism towards foreigners (especially those from Middle East) and send me off with the words “don’t trust nobody”. I arrived in Moscow with mixed feelings and fear of unknown. I was aware of the risk to travel to Russia all alone as a young girl but I could not let go of the opportunity of not only being able to travel to this country but also work there for my favorite non-governmental organization, Oxfam GB. It meant that born in Afghanistan Canadian was going to work for Oxfam Great Britain in Russia. I could not believe this was happening to me. This was first time ever I traveled alone and I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone to further discover the world. While flying to Russia I kept thinking about what my friends warned me about and the worst situations that could happen to me but the reality that my childhood dream was coming true and that I could speak Russian if something went wrong comforted me.
The lady, Shahlo, who was supposed to meet me at the airport, was my friend’s family friend. As part of the deal I was supposed to stay at her place for a week and in return I paid for an extra luggage to bring the parcel her husband sent from Canada. After a week I would rent a room in an apartment for three months that my work supervisor found for me. I had never met Shahlo and her husband but a trusted friend made all the arrangements. The night before my flight I spoke with Shahlo on the phone to confirm our arrangements and exchanged our pictures via email to recognize one another. When I arrived at Domodedovo airport, I could not find Shahlo anywhere and when I called her from airport’s payphone she would not answer. My first day in Russia was full of challenges and adventures. I put myself in a great risk by trusting the wrong people but luckily at the end I found a way out of this situation.