Up Up & Away!

After a week at home after camp, I am heading off again - this time for 4 months. In less than 24 hours I will be up in the air on my way to Mumbai and then Kathmandu. My pack is under 50lbs. and I have to still tie up the loose ends which will end up in my carry-ons for the 21 hours of flight time over the course of 2 days.

So I have all of the logistics sorted out (or so I think), but what about me? How ready am I really? I don't know how to answer that. Over the past week I have been prepping physically (running errands with mom, who still is tailoring her life to my pace... thank you!) and mentally (dates and times). However, emotionally I am a big knot. I have said "namaste" to many friends and family and feel prepared for take-off for an experience I am still having trouble wrapping my head around. And I guess that is why I chose SIT (the School for International Training or WorldLearning) to expand my horizons with an experiential-type educational semester. I will be learning the Nepali language, attending seminars in Field Studies and Development & Social Change, and living in a homestay. To cap it all off, I will be doing an Independent Study Project (ISP) for the final month. I have the itinerary, but paper can only tell you so much.

I am taking this leap for many reasons. In part, because I seek a challenge and a good amount of healthy risk, and in part because of curiosity and an insatiable wanderlust. I want to observe difference in a part of the world I have never seen. I will undoubtedly be working with girls and women in some capacity to connect to what I have been studying at school. Maybe maternal health, child bondage systems, women's shelters, female infanticide, I am unsure at this point. What I do know is that I want to experience religious traditions and learn from a people many don't think twice about because the country's position between two giants. The landscape and trekking have caused many people to make the same flight around the world as I will be making tomorrow, but I aim to experience the people's daily life and customs not just the tremendous views. To sum it all up... I have and have always had a gut feeling pulling me to Nepal, and sometimes you have got to just follow that intuition.

My posts probably will be much shorter due to load-shedding (up to 15 hours of no electricity and water in order to save) and a tight schedule. I hope to keep in touch, but maybe this will turn into more of a photo journal because as they say "a picture is worth 1,000 words." Until next time!

Namaste. Meghan

"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." - Confucius