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!
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