Today is the day – off to work in a safe house for victims of sex trafficking, and truly begin my understanding, and hands-on experience, around this issue. On the eve of my travel to SE Asia, I pulled out a journal I kept when I went to Romania last year to work in an at-risk orphanage during December ’08. To tell you the truth, I haven’t opened that journal since I came home, since the experience was so raw on every level. I really haven’t had the stomach to do it. Well, for whatever reason, I took a break from packing and opened it up last night to re-live a pretty amazing awakening of myself, and one of the catalysts to drive me towards fighting for the vulnerable. While reading the journal, I was reminded that at the completion of everyday, I forced myself to write what I learned on that day. I had a tremendous amount of anger over the treatment of the children, and the oppression of the local people, but found myself in a quiet space every night, and able to reflect on what those experiences meant. Hours before I leave for Thailand, to be immersed in what I consider my life’s work, I am taken back to the lessons I wrote down in Romania, almost a year ago. For this blog entry, instead of speculating on my impending journey, I thought it might be interesting to reflect on my journey from last year. For all of you following this journey, or wanting to take a step into the unknown, and be part of the solution, consider these personal lessons I learned on my last trip that are so important to embrace when working and volunteering abroad:
· As different as cultures and countries seem, fundamentally, every person is the same -- everyone wants, and deserves, to be loved.
· Risk is a necessity to reach ones potential
· It’s not what you look at, but what you see
· Live in the present
· Patience is a virtue
· Enjoy simple things in life – you will be happier
· Never be quick to judge
· Happiness is in the connections you make, not the things you’ve acquired
While I cannot blog while I am working at the safe house, I promise to take copious notes, and will blog a journal entry, per day, upon my return. We live in a country where we have a voice, and we know about the atrocities being committed against the vulnerable. It is my, and your, obligation to give the women and children survivors of sex trafficking a voice. A chance. Another view of life, where they know what security, vulnerability and love feel like. Talk to you in a couple of weeks.
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