Operation Christmas Child

Pack A Shoe Box!

NATIONAL COLLECTION WEEK: November 16th - 23rd

We all know Christmas is more than just gifts under our tree; it's a religious celebration as well as a time to gather with those closest to us and share the joy of the Holiday season. Many children around the globe do not ever get to know these experiences we ourselves look forward to year after year after year. So do you have a few minutes to make Christmas a reality for a child living in poverty? Pack a shoe box full of Christmas goodies to be delivered by Operation Christmas Child around the world. On a basic level it will provide children with a tangible gift but even more importantly it will let them know that somewhere out there someone is not only thinking of them, but including them in their Holiday celebration.

Could it be any easier to spread a little Christmas love? Nope! For packing instructions and gift goody ideas, click here. Keep in mind that it's the thought that counts and fun gifts can be inexpensive (Dollar stores are great fun!!).

Interested in more than dropping off your shoe boxes? Look into year-round or Collection Week volunteer opportunities to be a Christmas Elf at one of their 2,000 collection sites.

This will be my 23rd Christmas, how about you? It's time to use our power to give ____ their 1st Christmas.

Drop TOMS, Not Bombs

I recently learned of a really interesting volunteer opportunity and wanted to share it with all of you 'travel with a purpose' lovers.

Friends of TOMS works in partnership with TOMS Shoes, and is a non-profit organization committed to connecting volunteers with the One for One movement by experiencing it first hand. How can you contribute? Participate in a TOMS Shoe Drop, an adventure to serve those in need of decent footwear; deliver shoes, partake in excursions, meet new friends, and make a difference in the young lives of children. Invest in a volunteer to participate in this adventure. Provide treatments for those children already infected. Provide support in scouting new locations. Become a TOMS advocate and spread the word. BUY TOMS!

For more information, check out: http://www.friendsoftoms.org/

UPCOMING shoe drops include...

August 25-28, 2009: New Orleans, LA, USA
September 5-12, 2009: Argentina
October 10-18, 2009: South Africa

December 5-12, 2009: Argentina

Proyecto San Andres Saludable & GV Trips

The more I give, the better I feel... I'm not sure if that makes me a generous person or a selfish human being.

Habitat for Humanity

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. A lot of times I feel as though peoples eyes are etched with their life experiences. On San Andres Island, the young children of four or five have eyes that hold so much, that have experienced so much already in their short lives. It was clear that they learned early on about pain and hardship. Yet underneath this exterior, were the most beautiful, most cheerful children I have ever met. They don't have much, they don't ask for much, but what they emmit is a spirit so strong it gives me hope. It's absolutely true that Habitat is an organization that gives tools to those in need to make their lives better. However, as a volunteer helping those in need, my life is now better for having the chance to know these children and their families. They have touched my soul and left my heart a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger and a little more hopeful.

So where do I begin. This experience was one of, if not the, defining moments during my weeks of travel. One of the more obvious reasons is because this opportunity brought about another opportunity to extend my work with Habitat for the summer, which I am now carrying out in Bogota, Colombia. Outside of this, there are a million and one reasons and ways I evolved during the week long build. Afterall, how can you not be changed after meeting and seeing a walk of life so drastically different from your own?

On the first day of my first trip to San Andres, we toured through the five homes we would be working on for the week in Barkers Hill village. Some of these families barely had four walls to call home. The living conditions were less than less than desirable, which made me grateful we were there as the first International Team to begin making improvements. I took one big step up onto the concerte floor of Ruby's wood planked home, leaned to the right and then to the left. I had seen her kitchen, bedroom and bathroom where she and her three children live. In that moment I had the most overwhelming urge to hug my mom - who like Ruby, was a single mother of three for the greater portion of my youth - and thank her, over and over and over again for the life she provided for me. My gratitude continued through the next four homes; thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. How very different my life could have turned out.

Over the course of the week I had a reoccurring question that stemed from that initial feeling: why me? Who decideded Ruby, and every other person here for that matter, is to live in these conditions, while I am fortunate enough to be born into the life I have? It doesn't make sense. I mulled over this question throughout the week and came across a revelation. All of us "non-Ruby's" of the world have a responsibility to accept and uphold. The responsibility to use our resources, the resources handed to us at birth, to improve the lives of "Ruby's" around the world. Just because it's her and not me, or me and not her, doesn't mean things have to stay that way.

Which brings me to my next point.

I'm on a mission. I'm 22 years old and up until now my life has been pretty spectacular. Sure I may have complained along the way, and through acquiring a new perspective of the world, I feel rather embarrassed now for worrying over my “hardships”. Life is good. So like I said, I’m on a mission; a mission to give others the same kind of 22 years of life that I have been blessed with – love, education, happiness, independence, health. After all, these are things that every human being, of every race, deserves a chance at. And as I've mentioned before, it's me who was chosen to receive these privileges initially by circumstance. So now I’m on a mission to bring these things to others, to take responsibility for sharing my privileges. I plan on continuing to “find” myself along the way too... but that's a whole 'nother topic.

A new day, a new opportunity

I don’t know how it happened to me. When I stop, and REALLY think about everything I have just done in the past 2 months and 4 days, I don’t know how it happened; how it was/is all possible. I say possible in the sense of the pure and perfect timing of it all, possible on my very limited, very small budget. How in the heck was I so lucky?

From country hopping (Mexico to Guatemala to Colombia to Panama to Costa Rica to Guatemala to Honduras to USA to Colombia...); to snorkeling on a deserted island; to barfing my brains out for 10 hours straight and thinking 'is it ever going to end?'; to riding the L.D. train for days (if you have to ask what L.D. is, then clearly you've yet to experience the ride - don't worry, you'll know when you're on it); to Salsa lessons from male teachers the height of my tatas; to receiving foot/back massages from strange men on not one, but two occassions; to ditching flights and straight up being shut down from boarding others; to carrying 80lbs bags of cement with the Mayor, who could see I was clearly struggling on my own; to spending countless hours wine tasting and talking about everything in a teeny tiny wine shop in Antigua; to rain that poured down heavy on us on top of Mayan Ruinas; to reconnecting with my dear family and friends in Michigan; to wandering streets everywhere; to being lost in translation 24/7 and somehow missing it during my brief stint home; to negotiating cabs and often getting ripped off; to the many long bus rides; to sleeping in the jungle on a twin bed with a Kiwi, tangled in mosquito netting and fearing our survival from cockroaches in the night; to renovating homes to make people's life a little bit better, while they made mine better by just having known them; to meeting the most interesting people in the most unsuspecting places (i.e. the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner's husband in a Cafe on a rainy day); to laughing long and hard with new friends over cervezas in the Caribbean; to drinking local mezcal and eating blindly; to rafting waves, hiking and swimming currents; to reading, thinking, learning, changing, and absorbing every minute of every day; to yoga’ing on the beach and yoga'ing on rooftops with the smoky scene of volcanos pictured perfectly between prestine white walls and tiled rooftops......to Spanish classes in a courtyard a world away from the classrooms I spent much of my life; to beach time in bays and surfing for the first time with a teacher who was clearly more fed up with my progress (or lack thereof) than I was; to love affairs ending and new ones beginning; to the Spanish morning radio shows I don't understand but enjoy the happiness it brings the bus driver during the herendous morning rush hour in Bogota; to feeling lost and lonely and the "what do I do next?"; to running through terential downpours in the middle of the night and laughing the whole way; to hippie clad hostels and banana pancakes; to seatless toilets and ice cold showers; to mangos falling off trees and machete chopping cocos; to wakeboarding on the Rio; and every once in a while, having that wonderfully peaceful feeling that whispers inside, 'You are in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, doing exactly the right thing'. As quickly as it comes, it leaves me to continue on. If you have ever experienced this feeling, you know for yourself how incredible it is.

So I'm telling you, it's possible. It's all possible. When you are ready to let go and dive into the future, eyes blindfolded, towards all of the wild and obscure things you want - they will be there waiting for you. And the great thing is it's like a magentic force; once you open yourself up to the possibility of an opportunity, more and more opportunities reveal themselves. Opportunities you may not have ever dreamt or desired that now seem imminent to your life. Nevermind the logistics, the money, the time. Those are inconsequential matters in comparison to your life and creating the future you want to be living in. Don't feel bad. We all have our moments of insecurities and persistent questions. I still get them even doing what I'm doing. And it's probably a good thing. It means you're looking out for yourself. But in order to do that properly, you need to take more into consideration than just the downfalls; think about risks that will reap you great rewards. Think about all of those wild and obscure things you want. Now repeat after me: it's all possible.

Whitney's right... I've reached the point where I will exhale

Saturday, May 30th an unsuspecting Delta employee kindly greets me in a deserted terminal at DTW where moments later for the first time in public, I shed uncontrollable tears. I try to hold them in, I really do. I tell myself, 'Keep your composure, at least until you make it to the pay phone cubby'! That statement in and of itself was enough to keep the water works flowing; I don't even have a mode of communication. I am now just like the terminal, deserted.

After 6 days - one hundred and forty four hours - of travleing, packing, shopping, preparing, hello's, goodbye's, driving, planning, laundry, stressing, reassuring, visiting, organizing, explaining, emailing... my emotional rollercoaster came to a crashing hault; I'm stuck in Michigan and I'm not going anywhere. Well, until I get either A) A visa or B) Shell out a couple more hundred for a new flight to do so. My effortless dreams and plans have been crushed. This cannot be happening, this isn't how it was supposed to go. I know it's no use, what's the point of debating reality? Reality has brought me right back into a Volvo, cruising down 94, and my mind can't stop racing to figure out what my next move will be.

Despite my creativity, my options are quickly being exhausted. In order to reissue my unused ticket (Flight NW8901 is flying high in the sky by now) to redeem the whopping $98 to put towards a new ROUND TRIP ticket (very important for all of you international travelers out there!), I would owe a $150 penalty and another $50 on top of that. Superb. Scratch that. How about a Visa? I ring the Colombian Embassy in D.C. Perplexed why no one was picking up my call, a light bulb flickers: it's Saturday. Man, I'm really on a roll here. I do a little google'ing and my speculations (driven primarily by sentences that pretty clearly state exactly this) lead me to realize it could take a whole lot of time before I'm granted a Visa. I begin to loose faith; looking out the sideview mirror of the car, memories of the past 2 months, the anticipation to see my girls again and rejoining Habitat are quickly fading along in the distance. 'So long future 3 months!' Loosing faith that is until the Enemy (Delta), becomes the Allie. It took a day of recooperation, 1 massive migraine and a dent in my travel tissues to recreate my departure (with minimal damage at that). I'm drained and I'm tired, I'm content for now. Right now all I need is to let go of the breath that I've been holding onto and exhale.

Shoop, shoop, shoop, shoop-be-doop.

Homeward Bound

Officially back on American soil as of Saturday at approximately 5:30ish p.m. (thank you very much Delta!). I had mixed feelings about returning home for a quick visit. Nevertheless, a free ticket home to see your worry-riden family for seven days is usually something you can't pass up. It's like they say though, there's no such thing as a free lunch. I know my lack of excitment may sound odd, (and it's not that I didn't miss the fam, however worry-riden they may be, or the good old USofA for that matter) but once you've already put yourself out there and are in backpacker mode, it can be a big adjustment to unadjust to everything you just spent 2 months adjusting to in the first place. Being able to actually understand every word, phrase, conversation -what have you - in evesdropping sight; flushable loo's; drinkable tap water; accomplishing seemingly menial tasks exponentially faster (i.e. getting food, agua, laundry, internet...I'm struggling to fill my days here in the Mitten and it's only been 48 hours); just to highlight a few immediately recognizable differences.

Turns out those mixed feelings straightened right out after a few mixed drinks with some old friends. I now realize a week back in Michigan will be the extra dash of confidence that reconfirms my decision to stay abroad, provide some much needed quality time with my beloveds and allow me to resuit, regear, and repack (and not to mention give my overworked intestines a break). I look forward to the week to come and I look forward to my Colombian summer; I look forward to it all.