A little update

It is so hard to capture this trip in words and to express the feelings and thoughts the run through my head as I experience the things that I have so far. So far, this trip has been an emotional roller coaster and sometimes I have moments where I am overwhelmed with happiness and there are others where I question my existence and the life I have been blessed with. I love that I am able to take something from every country that I visit and I can only hope these lessons will stay with me and shape me into a better, more resilient person. Since I already wrote about my Guatemalan experience, I am going to try to play catch up with some special moments that I had in other countries.

In Belize, we sailed for three days straight, without shelter under the bright sun, only with the occasional rain storm to relieve us from the fear of heat stroke, in which case I was then really cold and really wet. During the day, there were hours where I could feel the cancer beginning to form under my skin, despite the thick barrior of SPF 65 that I applied religiously (and as a former tanning salon employee, applying any kind of SPF is a bold move to make). At night, we would pitch tents on little islands where it would usually start raining really hard, making me wish I could be at home, where I could take a hot shower, and tuck myself into bed. What I learned, though, is that it takes a certain deprivation of even the most basic of necessities in order to really appreciate the luxuries that I am blessed with in my day to day life. A couple weeks ago, Rachel and I checked into a hotel with air conditioning and the smell and feel of it was just remarkable beyond words. Even just walking into an air conditioned store and browsing around is a treat...why buy something when you can enjoy the air conditioning for free, right? These are the kinds of simple pleasures that I hope stay with me as I come back into the comfortable western way of life.

In Honduras, I had the same kind of experience, but instead of learning the importance of valuing the simple pleasures in life, I have learned to value the people I have been blessed with throughout my life time, especially my amazing family. Rachel and I spent a week volunteering with a medical team where we traveled around various poor towns up in the mountains and set up little medical clinics for the day. As I sat there, and watched teen mom after teen mom come in with all their children, I could not help but wonder if any of these women were ever told that they had potential to do whatever they wanted, that having kids and being subjected to one man was not the only option. I thought back to the times growing up, where I was told that I could be anything I wanted to be in the world and the sky was the limit. I thought about my family and how I could afford to make a plunge and take a chance and achieving any dream I had, because they would support me no matter what. And then I realized that the majority of these women do not have that kind of freedom and resources to break free from the cycle of poverty . In fact, to me it seemed like these young women were not really living, but more like surviving. We would give them whatever medicine we could and if it was bad, we would refer them to a hospital for further free treatment, but the reality is that most of them could not even afford the bus ride down to the city. The one week I spent there was such a wake up call to how amazing my life is and how valuable the people are that have come in and out of it. Anways, this blog is a little longer than I anticipated, so I going to continue with Nicaragua next time. Meanwhile, I am going to be happy and appreciate those who love me and the things I am blessed with