Farewell Peru, on to Bangladesh...
So... the plan was to stay in Peru and work on Project Pisco until the end of January 2008, take time off, and make it back to the US in February 2008. While the project will continue on as scheduled, I'm off to Bangladesh to help HODR make an assessment of the damages and impact of Cyclone Sidr, which struck the southwest part of the country on 15 November 2007.
I only had two days between the decision to make the Bangladesh assessment and my departure from Peru, so it still hasn't all caught up with me. I regret that I didn't have the time to personally say goodbye and thank all of the people who helped me so much, volunteer and Peruvian alike. Our neighbors who invited us to ceviche and Inca Cola, worked with us as we cleared rubble, gave us free rides, watched out for our safety, and showed us amazing love and generosity and kindness. We've had over 320 volunteers from 25 different countries working on an amazing variety of projects, with 80 volunteers on site at the time of my departure. Crazy! Here's to two more successful months of Project Pisco!
I'm so sad to leave Peru, but I leave hopeful, because maybe somewhere in Bangladesh we'll connect with another community, another pocket of people in great need who still find a way to give more us than they know; hopeful because I know we have a gift to share, and the gift is all of the volunteers who will follow us to sink their hands and hearts into the work we find.
To me, Hands On is a beautiful, serendipitous experiment in humanity. I hope we find a way to help in Bangladesh.
I only had two days between the decision to make the Bangladesh assessment and my departure from Peru, so it still hasn't all caught up with me. I regret that I didn't have the time to personally say goodbye and thank all of the people who helped me so much, volunteer and Peruvian alike. Our neighbors who invited us to ceviche and Inca Cola, worked with us as we cleared rubble, gave us free rides, watched out for our safety, and showed us amazing love and generosity and kindness. We've had over 320 volunteers from 25 different countries working on an amazing variety of projects, with 80 volunteers on site at the time of my departure. Crazy! Here's to two more successful months of Project Pisco!
I'm so sad to leave Peru, but I leave hopeful, because maybe somewhere in Bangladesh we'll connect with another community, another pocket of people in great need who still find a way to give more us than they know; hopeful because I know we have a gift to share, and the gift is all of the volunteers who will follow us to sink their hands and hearts into the work we find.
To me, Hands On is a beautiful, serendipitous experiment in humanity. I hope we find a way to help in Bangladesh.