I had big plans to blog about everything that led up to my departure, but there was so much and I never could get up the energy. Sorry, I'll just have to catch you up now!!
When I flew home from Oregon last December ('07) to celebrate the holidays with my family, I made the announcement that I had decided to go to South America to volunteer following the end of my AmeriCorps term. I don't actually remember what launched me on my path to believing that this was something that I could or should do, but I think it had a lot to do with the sadness of missing out on the Africa adventure, the desire to live on all of the continents (SA is # 5!!), and simply wanting to prove to everyone (especially myself) that I could do this 'international adventure' deal.
Everyone is always telling me that they can understand my sadness about leaving Africa, but no one knows the embarrassment and heartbreak that I feel about my “failure.” When I moved to Oregon, the main thought in my mind was: “I will not fail, I will not fail, I will not let them see me fail again.” On a basic level I understand that I didn't fail at Peace Corps, but it is awfully hard to tell that to my heart...so here I am proving to my heart that I can do anything I set my mind to! Oregon really helped me to see that; there I was living in a town of 600 in the middle of nothingness, and not only did I succeed at my job, but I flourished as a person. I honestly feel more confident in myself and my abilities now...that's some testament to the power of AmeriCorps! ;) (or Dufur...whatever)
My family had predictable reactions like “that's interesting,” and “you're leaving again!?” But I won them over and convinced them that this was going to be an awesome opportunity for me. I know they are excited for me, my excitement is contagious :)
So that was that, as soon as I had made the announcement I was locked in...I couldn't NOT go after announcing to everyone that I was going!! I did have a few moments and days where I suddenly thought I was an idiot and wanted to back out. In fact I had a lot of really really horrible dreams about my decision, and every time I woke up from one of those dreams I had my mind set that I wouldn't go. But each time the morning light returned to me my clarity and I was back on track again.
As soon as I got back to Oregon I began planning. I love to plan the crap out of things, it's what I do, so it's what I did! I researched and I researched and then I researched some more. I found some volunteer programs that I was interested, but had the worst time getting anyone to get back to me. The ones who did get back to me, wrote to tell me that their programs would cost more money than I could possibly afford. No reason to go completely broke during this thing!
About 4 months out, I bought my plane tickets. Whoa that was a big day, I was really locked in after that! After that I began telling friends and colleagues about my plans and suddenly people were falling out of the woodwork who wanted to come with. Where on earth were these people when I first started planning and was disparately looking for a travel partner? Crazy! Of course I have no idea how sincere most of the people are about visiting, but I hope some come out!
After AmeriCorps ended and I moved back to Kansas from sweet sweet Dufur I heard from one of the girls that I met during my second term of AmeriCorps.... wait for it ... dun dun dun, she is coming with me for the first few months! How excellent, she will be with me for all of the traveling part of this adventure, soooo much better than playing in S.America alone! Now I have someone to take my picture so that you can all see my beeeautiful face during my adventure! So lucky for you :)
So I was at my parents' house for over a month wrapping up my final S.America preparations. Sadly while I was there my poor sweet baby kitty got very sick and I spent a lot of time giving her intravenous fluids and trying to force her to eat. She didn't get better, only worse, so the week before Xmas we made the decision to put her down. It was ridiculous and awful and terrible and she will always be my sweet sweet baby. I was thankful to be there though, instead of her going while I was out of the country, at least I was able to say goodbye and help make the hard decisions. Pheeew.
So today I boarded a plane to Atlanta, with my Dad!!! Aw so cute. We flew to Atlanta together and then parted ways in the airport. Now here I sit on the airplane, about 45 minutes from Quito, Ecuador where I will officially start my S.America journey! Whoo!
Well I think you're all caught up now! Stay tuned for glorious glorious updates on my adventure.... for example: will I or will I not once again lock myself in a bathroom during my first night of homestay? Oh the excitement!!
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