I am now in my 6th or 7th month of planning a trip to volunteer overseas, and it seems that I am right back where I started from. I unfortunently have a very spontaneous persontality so when I have been waiting for this amount of time and trying to plan a trip, it is quite frustrating when it falls through. Though I do hope perseverence wins out in the end!
I have applied to Cross-Cultural Solutions, which is a volunteer abroad agency, and I now am waiting for a reply. The program that fell through was with Pacific Village Institute and I was going to volunteer in Vietnam, most likely to help a teacher or to teach English. The organization, PVI, was wonderful but they had no idea what was involved with people traveling with disabilities and I felt very insecure traveling by myself at seventeen, with a disability, and with a company who was basically winging it.
I believe that the hardest part for me is keeping up the confidence that I can do it and that I will be able to travel and make a difference. Everyone around me, meaning family and friends, are very kind when they talk to me but I can tell as they pat me on the head that they truly don't believe this is going to happen. And unfortunently I'm faltering myself. But along with my spontanaity, comes complete perseverence and I am not going to let go of a dream I have had for so long.
Well, I now am going to embark on a hopefully plausable trip with Cross-Cultural Solutions and I'll keep you updated!