Welcome!

Ten years ago, I arrived back home after 2 years of living/working/traveling in Israel and southern Africa. I packed a lot of experience in those 24 months. In the years since then, I went to grad school, taught elementary school, bought a house, started a new job as a professor, etc. All the while, I thought about where my next big trip would be.

Since my job allows me this flexibility, I decided to use half of my summer to go somewhere I’ve never been. I had two goals in mind: 1) I wanted to learn another language, and 2) I wanted to do something related to my profession (teaching).

I found what I think is a promising fit with an organization called Global Vision International. On Saturday, I travel down to Guatemala to participate in a six week volunteer teaching project (see Global Vision Int’l: Phoenix Project link under “Blogroll” to the right).

A lot of folks (four!) have asked me if I was going to “blog” about my trip, so I decided that I would give it a try. Blogging requires: 1) something to say, and 2) a connection to the Internet. I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say, but I’m not sure how regularly I’ll be able to access the Internet (weekly?). That being said, I intend to post to this site, as much as I can.

For those of you interested in checking up on my progress, you can check this site for updated posts, or subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on the link to the right.

In trips like these, as much as you read and prepare for them, you never know what they will really be like or, perhaps more importantly, how you will react to your new situation. All I know is that I am excited about learning a different language and working with kids again.   But, as I like to say, we’ll see!