The Wake-Up Call
There are many things you learn when you’re on the road.
One thing I learned today is to check the hotel room before you go to sleep to make sure the last person hasn’t set an alarm for some ungodly hour – say 6am – when a screeching cacophony of sound lets forth to jolt you from your dreams…
But, even though it was an unwelcome awakening, it forced me to lie in the darkness of the room and think this may be a symbol of something more meaningful… A wake-up call after a most significant week..
One week ago we had packed up our car and headed south. Then, yesterday, we were home again to bid farewell to one of Skip’s oldest friends and to gather with his family in mourning.
Not only was it a tragic and sad occasion, it also served to remind us to live life large and to keep on going along this path of our dreams.
So now seems like a significant time to mention the next big event we are headed towards.
Last week, we accepted positions with VIA (Volunteers In Asia) and, at the end of June we will be moving to Cambodia to live for at least a year and work with non-profit organizations in Phnom Penh.
As most of our friends know, this has been our goal for the past few years and has now become a reality. We have each been posted in positions suited to our temperament and backgrounds.. Skip will be working with Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency and I have a position with Development and Partnership in Asia (DPA)
At present, we have only a limited idea of what we’ll be doing there and our roles are briefly described here
On April 9, we will be participating in a three-day orientation session in San Francisco where we will learn more so we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, all we really know is that we’ll be getting on a plane in June for a new adventure in a land neither of us has visited before and that we need to learn Khmer! (said to be one of the hardest languages to learn and one where there are no spaces between the words).
Not sure if this is our wake-up call, a calling, or just one more step on this journey called Life. Either way, we know it won’t be dull!
I can tell you both that you will have the time of your lives… doing good while experiencing something very new… it’ll change the way you look at life in the US forever — and probably for the better.
So the descriptions of the work in Cambodia are awesome, guys. I try to imagine what it’s like to be thinking about all this, about heading into the unknown, learning a new tongue, going into a land you’ve never been to. Like being born again, in a way. Enormous. Mind-blowing. We’ll be eager for details, eager to come along by blog for this journey!fbk