Sunday, January 16, 2011

Why Travel?


I am leaving for a trip to India, Kenya and Uganda in the beginning of February through March. I am so excited about this trip because I have been looking forward to it for years. Since working for HALO, it has been a dream of mine to meet all the children we support. I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the kids that have been supported by HALO in Nicaragua. And if my experience in India, Kenya and Uganda is half as powerful as my experience in Nicaragua, I will be coming back with my heart completely open. I am so looking forward to meeting the kiddos and some of the people I have been working with from afar for the last 3 1/2 years. Not to mention explore 3 countries that have always seemed so intriguing to me.

I found this beautiful excerpt from "A Year in the World" by Frances Mayes that eloquently explains why I love to travel. I couldn't have said it better myself, so I thought I would share it with you:

"Travel pushes my boundaries. When you travel, you become invisible, if you want. I do want. I like to be the observer. What makes people who they are? Could I feel at home here? No one expects you to have the stack of papers back by Tuesday, or to check messages, or to fertilize the geraniums. When traveling, you have the delectable possibility of not understanding a word of what is said to you. Language becomes simply a musical background for watching bicycles zoom alongside a canal, calling for nothing from you. Travel releases spontaneity. You become a godlike creature full of choice, free to visit the stately pleasure domes, making love in the morning, sketch a bell tower. You open, as in childhood, and- for a time- receive the world. There's the visceral aspect, too- the huntress who is free. Free to go, free to return home bringing memories to lay on the hearth."

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