{"id":35,"date":"2011-01-17T04:50:19","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T11:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=35"},"modified":"2011-03-01T11:50:46","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T18:50:46","slug":"leaving-on-a-jet-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"Leaving on a Jet Plane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jordan and I are ready for a great adventure.\u00a0 We are leaving\u00a0today for a two-week working vacation in Vientiane, Laos where we will be building a school and playground for children who have never had a school and playground before.\u00a0 Working vacations can be experienced by college students, young professionals, and empty-nesters with equal satisfaction.<\/p>\n

This will be the tenth working vacation my husband and I have taken\u00a0in the past ten years.\u00a0 During that time, we have become trained leaders and now oversee the trip, with great assistance from Jordan who will be taking time off from her day job.<\/p>\n

Here’s the rundown.\u00a0 I stopped working ten years ago, and to celebrate, my husband and I went to New Zealand\u00a0 for a skiing and adventure trip.\u00a0\u00a0 While we were there, we met up with a group from Habitat for Humanity and built houses for some needy families.<\/p>\n

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This is one of the neighborhood shops in a Cambodian village.<\/em><\/div>\n
The following year we\u00a0were on the first American team to build\u00a0houses in Mongolia, and while there, we lived in the wilderness with nomads for a few days.\u00a0 It was very exotic. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Jordan working on a Habitat build in Romania<\/em><\/div>\n
We followed that up with trips to South Africa and Mexico.\u00a0 We then became trained leaders and organized\u00a0builds in\u00a0Cambodia, Vietnam, and Romania, which was Jordan’s first working vacation with us.<\/div>\n
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Donkey hanging out in the slums in Cairo.\u00a0 Businessmen deliver their products this way.<\/em><\/div>\n

Then we decided to find some organizations, other than Habitat for Humanity, who needed our help.\u00a0 So, last year, with Jordan’s organized assistance, we went to Cairo, Egypt and remodeled the apartments of six widowed women who were raising their children in unclean conditions.\u00a0 These families live in the city dump amid filth, rank odors, roaches, and debris, but they still want the same things for their famililes that we want for ours:\u00a0 peace, education, and advancement.\u00a0\u00a0 Also in Cairo, Jordan, another lady, and I volunteered in an all-girls’ orphanage to teach them to improve their English.<\/p>\n

Jordan, in Syracuse, and I, here in Lexington, spend some time each day reading blogs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I read about a blogger’s obsession with a certain paint color, I often think about the three families who were living under a tarp when we arrived in Cambodia.\u00a0 Their only hope was this group of strangers who were coming to build their houses, which were simple block structures with concrete floors.\u00a0 Those thoughts and experiences remind me of what is\u00a0 important.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong.\u00a0 I obsess over fabrics, furniture arrangments, and\u00a0paint like everyone, but when it gets out of control, I center myself by remembering the friends we have made and the families we have helped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Here I am with some little Cambodian friends who are happy with their new books.<\/em><\/div>\n
Working vacations help us really experience what is important in life.\u00a0 They also let us represent America and to let people in far-off lands know that we aren’t what they see on television.\u00a0 We are real people, just like them, who want a home, food, and security for our families.\u00a0 We know that when these people we have helped think about America, they won’t think about the bad propaganda, but rather, about the individuals who helped them build a home.\u00a0 They will think of Americans with love. <\/p>\n

Between 15 and 18\u00a0friends go on these trips with us each year.\u00a0 They are from all over the country, and have even come from England and Australia.\u00a0 Since we have evolved into a well-tuned volunteer machine, we select a country we want to go to for the first time or return to, and we research to find an organization there that needs our help.\u00a0 This year we will be helping Catholic Relief Services in Laos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jordan is doing arts and crafts with children in Romania.<\/em><\/div>\n
These trips always help Jordan and me touch base with what is really important in life.\u00a0 I have seen father’s weep as we handed them the keys to their new home.\u00a0 And, I have sipped tea on a colorful mat that was the only furnishings in a proud mother’s new home.\u00a0 We have seen the awe on a mother’s face as she accepts a potted plant for her new window sill. <\/p>\n

If a working vacation is something you have considered doing, it is easy to find information about agencies around the world who need help.\u00a0 There are scientific projects, like\u00a0preventing turtle eggs from washing out to sea or taking an animal census, if building is not your thing.<\/p>\n

Jordan and I hope to write some blog entries while we are away.\u00a0 It all depends on how updated the internet cafes are.\u00a0 We won’t know till we get there.\u00a0 Meanwhile, we have will post some entries we composed earlier.<\/p>\n

So, as Jordan would say,<\/p>\n

Cheers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jordan and I are ready for a great adventure.\u00a0 We are leaving\u00a0today for a two-week working vacation in Vientiane, Laos where we will be building a school and playground for children who have never had a school and playground before.\u00a0 Working vacations can be experienced by college students, young professionals, and empty-nesters with equal satisfaction. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}