More preparation

Last night I watched one of two movies we were told to see before we left, "The Killing Fields." It's a pretty popular movie from the 70's telling the story of journalists in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took over. The other movie I have yet to watch is "The Trials of Henry Kissinger."

We also have a whole stack of required readings to get through before we depart. I've been making a small dent in that pile.

I've been contacting the local news media as well as the Maumee Mirror and the Toledo Blade to see if I couldn't get some announcement space in there. I'll let ya'll know what day to look if it works out!

This week I sent my first of three tuition payments in to GYC which solidifies my position on the trip!

I've decided to stay here at school over Spring Break to make some extra money, and will most likely do the same during the month of May after classes get out as well.

Hitting the Ground Running

Capitalizing on my excitement here, and trying to get right to work on finding some money for this trip! I have an honest fear that I'm not going to be able to afford a flight to go...but I refuse to let that fear stop me from trying!

I found a great quote in the GYC fundraising information, Ghandi said, "If the cause is right, the means will come." God I hope he's right...

I'm mailing out letters to family and friends this week, so if you're here on the blog because you got one in the mail, thank you for taking the time to see what this is all about!

I've contacted department chairs, faculty and staff, and various centers here on campus for donations and fundraising advice.

I've looked into a few scholarship options, none I have been eligible so far. I'm in contact with the Maumee Rotary, and will continue to pursue more throughout the next weeks. I'm also going to try contacting the Dayton International Peace Museum and see if there is any room for collaboration there.

For any of you out there searching for flights for whatever reason, my roomate Jenni told me about kayak.com, its pretty great, and I just downloaded and am currently running a program, "TripStalker", thats right, you can enter flight searches and it continually "stalks" prices as long as you let it run.

How it Started

There is a series of events that started a while ago that landed me here, currently :

1. Another student living in my home-stay house in Guatemala, Sara, had recently traveled throughout Asia and her pictures looked amazing.

2. I bought a huge world map for my wall, and realized how many places and people are out there that I'll probably never see.

3. I felt like it had been too long since my time in Guatemala, and a lot of juniors have been studying abroad and I felt like I was missing out and wanted to get another trip in somewhere before I graduated.

4. As my career path progresses towards Human Rights Law, I've been getting anxious to visit a site that had something to do with human rights first-hand.

65 I found out last minute that Emily, a roomate from last year, was in Cambodia over the holidays.

When Emily got back we ate dinner on campus together and she told me the name of the organization she had gone with, Global Youth Connect. (The picture above is from her trip). I went back to my computer, looked it up, and realized that the application deadline was in a day or two. Thankfully the program director was understanding of my situation, and I had been in the process of applying for other jobs and summer programs, so I already had contacts writing letters of reccommendation for me. I had a phone interview last Friday, and found out yesterday that I was accepted into the program!

There is a very long list of things that need to get straightened out now, but I am very excited to begin the process! Keep checking here, as I will add links, pictures and more info about the preparation process as I go along!