About jealanka
Hi, this is Jea. I am almost 22 and in the middle of my college career.
I took time off and spend most of it working extremely mundane jobs.
I knew that if I had to continue these repetitive tasks for a few more
months, I would lose my mind. I
decided while in the middle of cleaning coffee pots for the fiftieth
time that I wanted to travel overseas solo and create opportunities to meet new
challenges and experience stimulating awesome-ness. I convinced
myself that this is the best time to take a risk, discover what I can do without a ph.d. and find out if I have a future in the field of
international humanitarian development.
While thinking about backpacking in Thailand to joining a volunteer
program in Sri Lanka to an Indian orphanage, I found a great couple Joanne and Daniel
by chance through the page of RCDP International Volunteer. From their lovely blog Little Bit Of Sunshine, I
learned about the Sahara Orphanage and read about their amazing
experience with the children and the dedicated staff. Over the next
couple of weeks, I weighed my options and did some very questionable
math.
I felt antsy the whole time until I finally purchased my ticket
to Kathmandu and it has felt right ever since, despite that there is a
large dent in my savings. I will be in Nepal from December until March.
I
can't wait to start my journey and I will write frequently in my blog to record my unique stumblings and remind myself why I took this trip in the first place.
I am very excited to meet these children
from the Sahara Orphanage and see what I can do for them.
Two of my favorite quotes by two of my favorite writers:
Arundhati Roy
"The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you
are alive, and die only when you are dead. To love, to be loved. To
never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the
unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of the life around you. To
seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never
simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect
strength, never power. Above all to watch. To try and understand. To
never look away. And never, never to forget."
Haruki Murakami
"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing
directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn
again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like
some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm
isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing
to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you.
So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm,
closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn't get in,
and walk through it, step by step. There's no sun there, no moon, no
direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the
sky like pulverized bones. That's the kind of sandstorm you need to
imagine.
An you really will have to make it through that violent,
metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it
might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a
thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You'll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.
And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it
through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact,
whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you
come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in.
That's what this storm's all about."
