true life planet

Yesterday was my very last day at work. For over a year I have worked multiple jobs, some at odd hours, to pay for this trip. It was extremely strange to realize that as of today I would be-unemployed! Today I ws thinking how much of my time is generally taken up by work,schedules,time management…basically MOST of my time for the past year. I liked my jobs, but it will be nice to not have to have a regular job for awhile.
Now I will be working-if you can call volunteering working-but it will be so much different. I will get to spend my time doing what I am most passionate about-helping people.

One of the first things people ask me when I tell them I’m about to go around the world volunteering is “How?”, and although I could answer that with exacting precision and detail ’til the cows come home, what they really mean is “Why?”
Our culture is so concerned about money,about our morgage,our car, our perfect job…I think it is hard for people to relate to why anyone would not be worried about those things, and prefer to focus on the other.

Lately, people just seem consumed with morgages and real estate and IRAs and being..what’s the word I’m looking for…Busy?Productive?…I’m not sure. I think all those things have their place, but, at least for me, that’s not what life is about. Realizing that that was not the center of my universe has given me tremendous faith and courage to have the life I have dreamed about.
I do not want to turn sixty(or fifty, for that matter),and translate my accomplishments into: worked, saved,spent, house,IRA. I would rather have some of that mixed with: travelled extensively,gave whatever could be given,loved passionately, believed ardently,life filled with friends and surprises.

It’s also interesting how many people have said to me how nice it is for me that I can go around the world, but they can’t. When I ask them why they can’t, it’s usually because their IDEA of travel isn’t really TRAVELLING-it’s staying in one place that is very expensive(like Paris), it’s not getting to know the people and culture of a place, without the comforts of home(which would obviously cost so much less!).
Of course, I will probably include some periods of time where I’m enjoying some nicer things,but I’d be bored if that’s all I did the whole trip.

As I said in an earlier post, giving up my the majority of my possessions makes the prospect of becoming a female nomad, however temporarily, such an easier task. (So many people I have met long to do this-but can’t for whatever reason. ) Too bad-It’s just liberating!

Sometimes people assume I must be rich-“Or how else can you go around the world?”, as though they have an around-the world-in-eighty-days on a cruise ship or something in mind when you say “world travel”. Of course I’m not rich! I’m travelling the old-fashioned way(or what I like to think of as the old fashioned way),like all the female adventurers before me.
This is so hard to explain to people sometimes-it seems like the more I try to explain,the more incomprehensible I become! So, I’m just giving up on explaining, and focusing on the doing. I have the sense that even though I don’t have alot of money, things will fall into place for me quite nicely. I’ve been amazed reading some travel sites, where people querie things like “Is 20,000 enough to go around the world?” and so on-I actaully want to spend as little as possible most of the time, so i can really experience the places I’m going. I don’t want 4* hotels and so on…that just seems so remote from how people actually live. That’s not even familiar to me in my life in the US!

Another thing People keep asking me is if I’m afraid to travel alone, as a woman. Well,yes,sometimes. But most of the time, no, I’m not. I’m actually finding the idea of travelling alone as a woman very empowering. Of course, there are days I play out the worst case scenario in my head-but I have a better chance of that happening here, than I do elsewhere.

OTHER STUFF: I have “road tested” my clothes and gear for awhile and made alot of changes. I got over a hundred emails from women who looked at the original list-with suggestions and-believe it or not, complaints. They thought my list was too conservative….I think it is fine, but I did make changes base on what worked best for me.

I also have heard back from most of the places I’ll be volunteering at the first part of the journey, and was surprised to learn that skirts were fine to wear even for outdoor work. I’ve been wearing this Macabi skirt for a week, and I literally can’t stop wearing it. It is the most comfortable, and flattering, skirt I’ve ever worn in my life! When I put on my Tilley pants after wearing this skirt, I could not stand them. So, I am only bringing these skirts.

(1) I was a little worried about being cold, but I bought some different wts of leggings, and rainpants, which have kept me quite toasty.

(2) I was also worried about mosquitos,but the lightest wt capilene leggings and a liberal about of deet should do the trick. I also asked my travel doc if pants were a neccessity in malaria/dengue fever/mosquito area, and he said it’s really about the deet protection you’ve got,and staying on the malaria meds. I’ve also read about people soaking the skirt in Pyrethrins, so I may do that to one of them.

(3) Of course, I was wondering about riding a camel in them (definitely camel-riding is mandatory sometime during my trip), and I asked the family in Jordan(that I will be staying with).. what they thought….they thought it was ridiculous NOT to ride a camel in a skirt(for a woman!) Isn’t that hilarious? I also had the privilege of talking to the woman who owns the Macabi skirt company, and she was just wonderful, answered all my questions (“DO any women travel with ONLY your skirt?” and so on..).

Tomarrow I get my Yellow Fever Shot, and on Friday I finish up my misc other vaccinations…I felt really badly the last time I got vaccinations, so I’m going to take it easy tomarrow. Still have lots of packing of my belongings to do tonight.

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