Less than a month to go, and we are close to filling up the one wheeled backpack each of us will be carrying! The clothes are all simple, packable and hopefully durable, and we'll be very sick of them six months from now if they actually last that long. We've found some interesting devices in the process:
- a Steripen, a UV light device that sterilizes drinking water by waving it in the water bottle for 48 seconds ... no need for purification tablets or filtering pumps! We'll let you know if it actually works. A long absence from entries in the blog could indicate less than stellar performance ...
- the IPad, with apps for anything you can imagine to find a map, hotel, restaurant or service just about anywhere. We'll be doing all of our communicating through it, so we are hoping for no glitches and no thefts ...
- as bathrooms will undoubtedly be subpar in some parts of the world, I found a device which allows girls to pee standing up ... enough said on that ...
We have obtained all of our Visas with exception of Russia, where we fall between the rule that you have to apply within three months of travel and the rule that you have to apply in your home country. So we are hoping the Russian Consulate in Sydney will help us out, or we'll have to reroute. Pat would very much like to visit his friends in Dmitrov, so we are really wanting to work something out; we had a very good organization in Washington DC help us with the Visas called Travel Document Systems . Bolivia was our other challenge, with the same rule about applying within three months of travel, but we can apply upon arrival there.
We are so lucky to have James house sitting for us, it makes a huge difference that our house will be lived in and cared for! Poor guy is already here and I'm sure counting the days to our departure ...
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Lending a hand ...
We learned that volunteering isn't free! When you really think about it, this makes sense ... just because we might think we can lend a hand doesn't mean that a local community would have resources to house you and feed you and ensure that you are competent. We discovered that there is are broad differences among volunteer organizations as far as what kind of time commitment they require, services they try to provide, fees required, and whether or not they have specific religious sponsorship. Complicating our situation - we want to volunteer in at least three countries. Some of the organizations were really cost prohibitive, and we had the sense that we could not be sure those funds were being invested in the local community we would be serving. There are many wonderful smaller groups we would have enjoyed working with - but they tend to have specific times when they make volunteer trips, and we needed to fit it into our schedule.
We found a great website at the International Volunteer Headquarters which operates out of New Zealand, and which partners with volunteer organizations all over the world. They have a great website, answered our questions, provide opportunities to volunteer in medical clinics, orphanages and schools, and we could pick sites all over the world. Their fees are very reasonable, and we can choose a home stay, with our fees going to the family hosting us. We liked the design of the organization, and it really has helped us get organized about what we need to bring and they do the details. We are doing the India and Tanzania programs through them, and in India we will be in New Delhi for a week of orientation prior to heading north to Dharamsala for our volunteer experience. In Tanzania, we'll be in Arusha. We received an amazing file of information about the experiences right after we booked them, and are really looking forward to the experiences.
We are still trying to set up two other volunteer experiences - one in Peru, through Father Jack's mission in Chimbote, and in Bolivia we would like to connect with Mano a Mano. Our great friends Karen and Brooks have done volunteer work in Bolivia through Mano a Mano, and we have contributed to the building of a school there. Details we still need to work out.
We have learned that there are needs everywhere and wonderful organizations working to fulfill them ... making the world seem a lot smaller!
We found a great website at the International Volunteer Headquarters which operates out of New Zealand, and which partners with volunteer organizations all over the world. They have a great website, answered our questions, provide opportunities to volunteer in medical clinics, orphanages and schools, and we could pick sites all over the world. Their fees are very reasonable, and we can choose a home stay, with our fees going to the family hosting us. We liked the design of the organization, and it really has helped us get organized about what we need to bring and they do the details. We are doing the India and Tanzania programs through them, and in India we will be in New Delhi for a week of orientation prior to heading north to Dharamsala for our volunteer experience. In Tanzania, we'll be in Arusha. We received an amazing file of information about the experiences right after we booked them, and are really looking forward to the experiences.
We are still trying to set up two other volunteer experiences - one in Peru, through Father Jack's mission in Chimbote, and in Bolivia we would like to connect with Mano a Mano. Our great friends Karen and Brooks have done volunteer work in Bolivia through Mano a Mano, and we have contributed to the building of a school there. Details we still need to work out.
We have learned that there are needs everywhere and wonderful organizations working to fulfill them ... making the world seem a lot smaller!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Getting started ...
It has been many months since we last updated this, so we have a lot of catching up to do! We spent a lot of the early part of this year just educating ourselves on world travel and volunteering. We want to follow the good weather generally, as that makes packing easier, and we plan to have one wheeled backpack each so that doesn't leave room for any extras. So the first decisions had to be about a direction around the world, countries we want to visit, and how to connect with volunteer organization(s) in places like Africa, India, and South America. In this blog - I'll catch you up on the travel plans.
There are some online sites that you can go to and enter a tentative plan, and they'll come up with an estimate - then you call them to get flights reserved and booked. This is more complicated than it sounds, as you want to know how much to budget, but you can't know that until you have not only firmed up the itinerary, but settled on dates. So the original thought that we would stay really flexible wasn't practical, as we had to firm up some basic flight plans, and that meant firming up when and where we were going to volunteer, and then we needed to get Visa's for many of the countries. So ... we decided countries we wanted to see and work in, mapped out month by month our direction, put dates in and worked with a company called AirTreks to purchase our tickets. They were great to work with!
So here's the plan: Minneapolis to New Zealand, to Australia, to India, to Tanzania, to Istanbul, to Russia, to London, to Buenos Aires, to Patagonia, to the Mendoza region of Argentina, to Peru, to Bolivia, to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, and home again just in time for our beautiful Minnesota summer. In the next blog I'll give more specifics on the volunteering we'll be doing!
There are some online sites that you can go to and enter a tentative plan, and they'll come up with an estimate - then you call them to get flights reserved and booked. This is more complicated than it sounds, as you want to know how much to budget, but you can't know that until you have not only firmed up the itinerary, but settled on dates. So the original thought that we would stay really flexible wasn't practical, as we had to firm up some basic flight plans, and that meant firming up when and where we were going to volunteer, and then we needed to get Visa's for many of the countries. So ... we decided countries we wanted to see and work in, mapped out month by month our direction, put dates in and worked with a company called AirTreks to purchase our tickets. They were great to work with!
So here's the plan: Minneapolis to New Zealand, to Australia, to India, to Tanzania, to Istanbul, to Russia, to London, to Buenos Aires, to Patagonia, to the Mendoza region of Argentina, to Peru, to Bolivia, to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, and home again just in time for our beautiful Minnesota summer. In the next blog I'll give more specifics on the volunteering we'll be doing!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
How did we get here?
About nine months ago, Pat and I were talking about how our work lives don't seem to be getting any easier as we get older. Pat is a family medicine physician, with a more recent specialization in hospice and palliative care, and I am a clinical nurse specialist in child psychiatry, and we both have had interesting and fulfilling careers. At 60 (Pat) and 56 (me), we are not yet ready to retire. We have immersed ourselves in our community through volunteer activities, for Pat in a medical directorship of a newly established Hospice House, and for me with almost 10 years on the Board of Education. So as we began thinking about how to "cut back" on our responsibilities, we realized we had no idea how to do this.
In truth, we are our own worst enemies in this regard. He is supposed to be cutting his medical practice, but when someone says "my mother needs a physician", he rarely says "no". I wasn't going to run for another school board term, but then worried that our new superintendent should at least have an experienced board to help him for a few years ... etc. etc. etc. The world will do just fine without us, but we can't seem to let go of things. Our adult children are doing just fine, yet I can't stop slipping them a $20 every time I see them ... And when we take a trip or are gone for a week of vacation, Pat is just more overloaded when he comes home, so much for "relaxed and refreshed".
Enter the "walkabout" concept. It is an aboriginal rite of passage for adolescent males, who live in the outback learning the ways of their ancestors. This has influenced a phenomenon of leave of absence Down Under, where people just don't show up for work, and then when they come back months or years later they expect their job back. It is just so NOT US. Could we do it? Could we take off for six months, wander the globe spending as much time in each place we visit as we want, having no schedule, and having no one counting on us to be somewhere or take care of something? We had always wanted to do some medical mission work, and with six months we would be able to volunteer in several sites around the world.
Pat had an initial thought that "I can't be gone six months, but three months might be doable..." But I kept thinking that three months would just be a long vacation, not a lifestyle change. The more we talked about it, it seemed like a great way to prepare for the next chapter of our lives. If we wait until we retire, one or both of us might have health problems preventing it or at least making "cheaper" travel more challenging. Perhaps if we take a time out, we can reevaluate what we really value in our lives, and make sure that our sixties and beyond are years where we spend our energies in the ways that bring us the most joy - our family, our friends, our community.
This adventure will take planning and preparation, and we are just beginning that. We have both received permission for a leave of absence (couldn't quite do the not-showing-up thing, a year's notice seemed nicer), we have talked our oldest son James into housesitting for us while he saves money to purchase his first home, we have let him and Danny, our middle child, and Erin, our youngest, know that they'd better not fall in love right now because we can't plan a wedding while being irresponsible. See, I'm already being overresponsible about this ... it's hopeless.
We don't know where we're going, only that we'll start in the southern hemisphere in January of 2011, in Australia and New Zealand. We are going to have to negotiate a level of accommodation as a couple somewhere between one star (Pat would sleep anywhere) and three stars (my lower limit). We can't do the dorm style hostel thing as Pat snores like a train and someone might harm him during the night to get him to stop. So, that kind of works in my favor. I have already made the ultimate sacrifice for the "team", in giving up my morning extra shot latte at Caribou Coffee, which by my calculation will save a cool $1576.80 in a year ... scary, huh? We have set personal goals to get in better shape, simplify our lives, and to use friends who have travelled as resources to learn about the less traveled paths of the world ... So feel free to weigh in, give advice, steer us a direction, it's a big world out there, and we eleven months to plan our trip around it!
In truth, we are our own worst enemies in this regard. He is supposed to be cutting his medical practice, but when someone says "my mother needs a physician", he rarely says "no". I wasn't going to run for another school board term, but then worried that our new superintendent should at least have an experienced board to help him for a few years ... etc. etc. etc. The world will do just fine without us, but we can't seem to let go of things. Our adult children are doing just fine, yet I can't stop slipping them a $20 every time I see them ... And when we take a trip or are gone for a week of vacation, Pat is just more overloaded when he comes home, so much for "relaxed and refreshed".
Enter the "walkabout" concept. It is an aboriginal rite of passage for adolescent males, who live in the outback learning the ways of their ancestors. This has influenced a phenomenon of leave of absence Down Under, where people just don't show up for work, and then when they come back months or years later they expect their job back. It is just so NOT US. Could we do it? Could we take off for six months, wander the globe spending as much time in each place we visit as we want, having no schedule, and having no one counting on us to be somewhere or take care of something? We had always wanted to do some medical mission work, and with six months we would be able to volunteer in several sites around the world.
Pat had an initial thought that "I can't be gone six months, but three months might be doable..." But I kept thinking that three months would just be a long vacation, not a lifestyle change. The more we talked about it, it seemed like a great way to prepare for the next chapter of our lives. If we wait until we retire, one or both of us might have health problems preventing it or at least making "cheaper" travel more challenging. Perhaps if we take a time out, we can reevaluate what we really value in our lives, and make sure that our sixties and beyond are years where we spend our energies in the ways that bring us the most joy - our family, our friends, our community.
This adventure will take planning and preparation, and we are just beginning that. We have both received permission for a leave of absence (couldn't quite do the not-showing-up thing, a year's notice seemed nicer), we have talked our oldest son James into housesitting for us while he saves money to purchase his first home, we have let him and Danny, our middle child, and Erin, our youngest, know that they'd better not fall in love right now because we can't plan a wedding while being irresponsible. See, I'm already being overresponsible about this ... it's hopeless.
We don't know where we're going, only that we'll start in the southern hemisphere in January of 2011, in Australia and New Zealand. We are going to have to negotiate a level of accommodation as a couple somewhere between one star (Pat would sleep anywhere) and three stars (my lower limit). We can't do the dorm style hostel thing as Pat snores like a train and someone might harm him during the night to get him to stop. So, that kind of works in my favor. I have already made the ultimate sacrifice for the "team", in giving up my morning extra shot latte at Caribou Coffee, which by my calculation will save a cool $1576.80 in a year ... scary, huh? We have set personal goals to get in better shape, simplify our lives, and to use friends who have travelled as resources to learn about the less traveled paths of the world ... So feel free to weigh in, give advice, steer us a direction, it's a big world out there, and we eleven months to plan our trip around it!
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