Fun-draising!

The flights are booked. The vaccines have been injected. The visas are being issued. We have contacted far-flung friends of far-flung friends seeking couches and advice and have been devouring guides for South America, Africa, India, and New Zealand.

And we have also committed to two of the three volunteering stints we have planned, in Peru and Kenya. (Still trying to decide on a program for India, suggestions welcome!)

We'll be volunteering with the Global Volunteer Network, which pairs you with local a NGO (non-governmental organization) in the area who is more in tune with the needs of the community. In March we'll be working with a local organization called Maximo Nivel for two weeks in Cusco, Peru. Cate will be teaching English to locals, and I will be helping in a health clinic for low-income families.

In Kenya, we'll be working with Volunteer International Community Development Africa for two weeks in May. Cate will be assisting in an orphanage, teaching, encouraging and caring for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. I will be volunteering with an HIV/AIDS program helping with both prevention and treatment of patients.

And so, we've also begun in earnest...fundraising for these programs. Volunteering programs charge fees for food and lodging during your stay, administration, and a donation to the community. We've done a lot of research and found that GVN offered some of the more affordable options while still allowing for a meaningful, effective volunteering placement.

And now I have a confession. Fundraising makes me squeamish. That's right, I'm signing up for 4 years of blood and guts in med school, but fundraising makes me squeamish. My American, hyper-individualistic self-reliance dictates that not having saved enough money or worked out some sort of scheme to pay for this myself constitutes a failure. However, after some of the experiences I had last fall and what I hope to experience on this trip, I'm trying to re-think the value of doing everything on my own. As Bill McKibbon writes in his book Deep Economy (highly recommended), "We don't need each other for anything anymore. If we have enough money, we're insulated from depending on those around us-which is at least as much a loss as a gain."

The italics are mine. I'm not promoting a dependence on others but suggesting that maybe a little more interdependence, a little more connectedness might be okay. You see, Cate and I could go on this trip all on our own means and have, as I'm sure we will, amazing, life-changing experiences and return home with the dust kicked up in our souls and a new, fresh brand of inspiration to get us going on our lives. And that will be great, for us. But how much more could be gained if we can parcel out the ownership of this trip? If a community of people is invested in our trip and we can return that investment by sharing what we see and learn? We will get to share the connections we make in the global community and also illuminate how some of our choices in the USA affect other people around the world. And hopefully that dust-kicking, soul-stirring inspiration will be transmitted to many instead of just two.

And so, in this post-modern world, we're reaching out to our community, which is no longer necessarily defined by a geographical location, but are all those people who have come (or are yet to come!) into our lives and have helped shape and support us. If you're interested in "investing" in our volunteering experiences, you can do so here. And if you have children, check out our Fairy Trail Adventures postcard subscription service from Nie, the travel fairy. We hope to repay you in sharing in something larger than us or this trip and in passing on some knowledge, awareness and inspiration.