I am so glad to be doing this! The mysterious little "encouragements" continue and, although I am a bit nervous, I feel more than ever that this is right. My loan-payback is proving to be much less problematic than I thought it would be. I booked my flight a bit ago and gave myself 5 days for traveling after I leave Patillas. It's not as long as I'd like, but I don't mind. I can return some other time when I have more money.

My budget for traveling will probably be $400. I've found cheap hotels and guesthouses, found fares for ferry rides to Culebra and Vieques, bike rental, and snorkeling gear for Culebra. I really have no way of knowing how things will actually play out, and I like it that way. Although I want to make sure I'm not being too romantic and unrealistic, so it's good to have a rough plan like I do.

Here's where I hope to go

-Stay a night at the island of Culebra and swim at night in the Biolumescent Bays, SNORKEL( a cool word) in the day. Apparently Culebra has the best snorkeling locations in Puerto Rico. Flamenco Beach in Culebra is a half moon shape surrounded by mountains.
-Stay a few days at the larger island, Vieques. In order to get to the cheap guesthouse I will have to bike across the island with all my stuff. How light can you travel for three months? I will find out.
-See the largest rainforest in PR, El Yunque
-Stay a couple days in San Juan and Old San Juan

Luckily, those places are all on the East side of the island. I will have to visit the other parts of the island when I have more money. I'll miss out on the underground cave system and Arecibo, but I can cope.

Old San Juan

El Yunque National Rainforest

Biolumesence, Culebra Island

Vieques Island

Flamenco Beach, Culebra Island

MMMk to do list

-make resume
-send e-mail to 3t
-clean room
-start thinking of things I need
-find that Eco-store that had the crankable flashlights and buy some for Las Casas de la Selva

It begins!

Yesterday morning I received an e-mail from 3t of Las Casas de la Selva saying I was able to volunteer. I am so surprised at how easily this is playing out. I've also been noticing what seems like tiny encouragements from the world. Just small things that seem to magically pop up and suggest that I am doing the right thing by taking this plunge. And I'm not a person who believes in destiny or signs really. Of course I can regard them as coincidences, or just say that I notice them only because of my current state, but it's mysterious and I am listening to them.

This whole thing really feels right, but I will confide that I am uneasy at the idea of leaving on a plane by myself, with strangers waiting to receive me on the other side, at a foreign place, where I will remain for 3 months. Leaving "my comfort zone" is just what I want to do, but I can't predict how easily I will handle it. My spirit has always felt more wild than I let myself be. Maybe everyone is this way, but I have felt desire for so much more than I've ever allowed myself do, probably due to fear. Fear of success, fear of growing as a person, fear of my own potential. Failure or mediocrity has always been the more comfortable place for me. It's about time I let that go. Comfort isn't too functional.

Once I finally get a hold of Michelle, the student loan person that is apparently against being at her desk, I can find out about deferring my loans!

Human Potential clip from Waking Life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-PajFU0ts

YouTube - Pocahontas - Just Around The River Bend

YouTube - Pocahontas - Just Around The River Bend

Pochahantes chose the lively stream and so will I!

In nearly every conversation I express my desire to live with passion and pursue anything I want to accomplish instead of limiting myself. I think about it all the time- write about it all the time- express it as often as it comes up. But what have I done? Nothing. I probably tell myself that it can't happen until later, when I'm done with school. But why do I even have to wait that long? I have great admiration for people that get ideas and spontaneously live them out, yet I feel unworthy of doing the same. Granted they probably have more money than me.... But I've come to an exciting point where I realize I CAN pursue anything, and I feel that I have to do something that intimidates me in order to conquer my feelings of inadequacy and gain a sense of direction and self. Not only that, but this trip feels like a symbolic "choosing of the road less traveled" and living how I really desire instead of living some dry, robotic life set up for me by some invisible hand.

Alright so what should I do? Well I have a myriad of interests, and I have settled on a vague topic for my field of study in college: Environmental Studies. Obviously the topic of "Green-living", conservation, Global Warming, organic---- it's plastered everywhere. But what can a person actually do to sufficiently heal the planet besides buying "Green" products that probably have been advertised inaccurately. Well after being quite inspired to get involved with our planet's salvation from these:

-reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
-learning from a friend who belongs to the Dakota and Three- Affiliated Tribe
-researching the Native American ideas
-reading the speech by Chief Seattle http://www.barefootsworld.net/seattle.html
-being involved in an Eco-Rep group at school
-and generally being introduced to and learning about global warming with the rest of the world

.....I was quite certain that this is what I want to devote my short life to. I hope there's millions of people out there who feel the same way. If you sit and think about it, it's the most important movement in the history of the world. If our human species doesn't become active in saving the planet, it doesn't simply affect people with cancer, babies who may be aborted, or kids with ADD. No, it affects EVERY movement that desires to help people. Not only that, but it affects all other species whom so innocently have been hurt by our confused motivations for successful "progress", a progress that has successfully torn apart the planet. Now that I have been learning about the mistakes humans have made in their blind obsession with an idea called "progress", I wonder what has to be done, and what I can really do. Buying a "green" yoga mat, turning lights off, and biking everywhere does not feel very effective. There has to be a fundamental change in the American way (as America is the highest contributor to Global Warming). So. I've got a bit of money that I have been saving to go back to college. My plan is to use that money to volunteer abroad, and then return to work for the summer and go back a semester later than planned. There's a bit of complication, like the fact that my previous college loans are gonna be due for payback pretty soon. But I am so very willing to figure out all the complications in order to do this.

Ok so I've always wanted to go to Africa, but the flight is too expensive for my budget ($2000) and will have to wait until the Peace Corps, should they accept me.

RESEARCH

I got books.
-"Volunteering Around the Globe" by Suzanne Stone,
-"Volunteer Vacations" by Bill McMillon etc,
-"Green Travel" by Fodor's
-and like 7 other books on traveling alone and 700 hundred things to do before you die type books.
It was really exciting and inspiring to look through the books and see what's out there, but eventually I turned to the good old internet because it's faster and more efficient.

I first tried googling "volunteer abroad" and checked out various volunteering programs and was initially disturbed by the prices of volunteering!

Some examples:

Cross-Cultural Soluntions' programs are all roughly $6800/ month
International Volunteer HQ- roughly $800/ month

Eventually I went directly to the "fees" pages and ruled it out without even recording it's information. Most programs are well over a thousand for even a two-week excursion. Plus, all of the warn "flight not included, visa not included....." and I thought maybe I needed to approach my search differently. I went on NWA's site and started searching flights. I thought I could find the cheapest flight, and THEN find a volunteer site in the country to see if there was anything remotely affordable.

Flights price examples from MSP:
Panama, Panama- $764-847
Rio de Janiero- $1050
Bogoto- $864
Nassau, the Bahamas- $484-488
Lima, Peru- &858
Ixtapa-$620
San Juan, Puerto Rico- $365

Nassau and San Juan were the cheapest flights I found. I chose San Juan because Puerto Rico is US territory and I wouldn't need a VISA or passport. That's pretty nice considering all of this will happen very soon. The problem with searching for Puerto Rican volunteering sites is that if you search "volunteer abroad" Puerto Rico isn't a site on most program's list considering it's kind of with the US. Well I tried what seemed like hundreds of different wording in a google search- and found only one option, which is thankfully a really good one.

Las Casas de la Selva
In Patillas, Puerto Rico, there is a place called Las Casas de la Selva where they are a part of Eye On The Rainforest and they allow volunteers to come and help them for 1-3 months. From what I've seen, volunteers do a lot of manual labor that goes towards research for organic farming, sustainable living, and conservation. It seems like they are an innovative and loving community. It says they have a meditation thursdays and tuesdays which is cool since I like meditation and yoga, but feel kind of awkward doing it at home .http://www.eyeontherainforest.org/volunteeropps.php



So I sent 3t and Andres, the main contacts for Las Casas De Le Selva, e-mails and am eagerly waiting their reply. It seems to be a wonderful fit, and even if it isn't I am thrilled to be trying something. But I guess if this doesn't work, I'll just go as planned to UW- Stevens Point in January. The orientation is December 5th... so hopefully I get a reply from Las Casas De Le Selva soon. I can't wait. I've never seen the ocean, never seen mountains, never been abroad, never traveled alone. I JUST CAN'T WAIT!