Advertisement
Published: February 7th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Greetings all my loved ones,
I hope this finds you all in good health in the new year. As of today, I am offically packed and ready to head back to California. Its a good thing too becuase I am leaving tonight at 3:30 in the morning. Packing my things is getting eaiser and eaiser. I am excited and absolutely ready to undertake this next semester. For all of you who do not know, I am headed by myself to Mukono, Uganda. I will be volunteering at a youth organization, doing outreach work such as AIDS awareness, grant writing, womens empowerment and whatever else they have planned for me. I will be living in the "volunteer house" with up to eight other people from all over the world. I have already been in contact with one of the girls. She is my age and from Washington. Other then that, I have no idea whatsoever about what this next stage of my journey is going to encompass. I am looking foward to finding out and I am so ready to be in Africa. If you want to check out the organization I am connected with then go here:
http://www.volunteer.org.nz/uganda/
My winter
break was much needed and used to its capacity. I made the journey from Burlington to my house something like nine times, this is not including visits to Maine and New York. I was able to spend some quality time in my house for the first time in years and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I spent many a good hour reading, working on art projects and finding every way possible to aviod working on my college applications. Thank God I got those done though. I am applying to UVM and The New School (Eugene Lang.) I have no idea where I want to go now, so do not ask 😊
Re-adjusting to the states and home took quite some work. I really struggled with finding a balance between everything I had just experienced and re-immersing myself into my old social patterns. It wasn't that the old situations were not where I wanted to be, its just really hard to come back to something so familiar when you have been through so much. Luckily, I have truly outstanding friends and a really sweet boyfriend to help me through rather then exacerbate the problem. Thanks guys.
I have discovered that balance and I am really excited to slap on the ole' travelin' shoes again. Uganda is going to be intense. It will be the first time I am going to be traveling on my own. I feel prepared because my last group leaders made sure we knew how to take care of ourselves by finding our own hotels and making travel reservations. We will have to see how I fare out there.
I have been writing alot and have found a re-occuring subject flowing through my entries. My journeys have taken me to far off lands filled with unfamiliar sounds and sights. I have loved every minute of it. It’s not what I physically do along my travels that tells me I am headed in the right direction, it’s the feeling and experience that comes from the connections I have made. Every time I travel, I become more and more in touch with the idea that experience comes from living and loving. I love what I do and therefore the world becomes a place of constant stimulation. As I look around my room, I see tidbits of the experiences that have made me who I am today. They are constant reminders of where I have been and where I am going. I see tapestries from India, reminding me that although its difficult, if we put our heart into something the result will always be beautiful. I can pick up the little ceramic elephant that reminds me of my trek through Thailand, when being outside in the natural environment was the most invigorating high of my life. I can read my journal entries from Central America when I took the time for myself to explore what truly being honest entails and I can always return to the photos of all the brilliant friends that stream in and out of my life.
On that note, I hope you all keep in touch. I will not be able to use the internet for the next three weeks while I am on retreat, but feel free to write and I will get back to ya'll and soon as possible. All my love to you!
-Emma
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 13; qc: 55; dbt: 0.059s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Tanya
non-member comment
travel
Emma, your comments on experience and living and loving rang so true with me. Keep on going, inspiring, and believing in the beautiful!