post #3

welcome back.

so i have been spending lots of time recently thinking about my upcoming trip to honduras and belize. i leave on monday, august 13th and come back at some point (i don’t really know what the date is: is that bad??). being the super-efficient-traveling-packer that i am, i usually spend time thinking about what bag i am going to pack for the given trip, which clothes/items i want to bring, how much of each item i want to bring, and whether or not it will all fit. i think this activity, which i HIGHLY love, stems from my childhood love affair with tetris. at one point in middle school, i was so obsessed with tetris that when i slept at night, i use to see how the different 4-blocked shapes could fit into each other in a continuing set of frames where the game would go on and on and on and on… it became so frustrating that i couldn’t get the thought out of my head that i had to actually kick the habit, drop the game, and move on with my simple life. to this day, i still wish that i had been entered in some sort of international tetris championship that based its qualifying marks and standards on which competitors’ highest levels achieved, and not based on points. i always advanced to high levels, but my scores would not always be as high as other tetris-ites.

and i digress…

with packing ahead, i figured that i would share with you all of you about my trip, why it is going to be awesome, about the cause, and what YOU can do to help. after all… a significant characteristic of the world we live in now is the power of an individual. everyone can help, and you could help after reading this entry.

my trip to honduras/belize at the end of the summer will fall under the category of VOLUNTOURISM. if you haven’t heard of it, you can probably take a guess at what it aims to combine: volunteering + tourism. this trendy, helpful, experience is becoming more popular, especially amongst all age groups (kiddies to middies to seniors). we (ashley, me, and many others) are going with the organization SUSTAINABLE HARVEST INTERNATIONAL (SHI), which aims to “build a global network of local partners working toward environmental, economic, and social sustainability… SHI facilitates long-term collaboration among trained local staff, farmers, and communities to implement sustainable land-use practices that alleviate poverty by restoring ecological stability.”

bad-ass, i know.

in honduras, a group of about 15 will be working to build a demo-farm that will promote sustainable farming, help build a sturdy farm-stand to sell what they grow, and really anything else necessary to get these locals set up to grow environmentally safe/efficient, while also helping to boost the local economy. it will be some good, difficult, and fun work down there.

so anyway, this gets me on my thought: this type of vacation/service is becoming more popular, especially among people with money. because when it boils down to it, only people with some sort of money can afford to travel/vacation anyways… so what better way to do it than to to combine seeing another part of the world with HELPING that part of the world? your entire trip does NOT have to be just of service… but instead, just one part of it. doesn’t this sound awesome? doesn’t this sound like something YOU would want to do? there are TONS of these organizations running these kinds of trips. the best part: they organize almost every bit of it for you. all you have to do is pick a cause you like/care about, learn more about it, make sure it fits your budget, see if you want to add anything else to the trip, and then book that bad boy.

ashley and i will be working that week with SHI on the farm in honduras, but then spending a few days with a honduran non-profit named guaruma (increasing the level of education and environmental awareness with env. education, computer, and photography skills), and then doing some of our own traveling with a superstar named mel (ashley’s friend and our connection to all of this) to/around belize afterward.

ok, so your homework after reading this (yes, i said it… homework):

1. check out SHI’s website, look around, sign up for their newsletter, tell everyone else you know about it (or about my blog!) learn about it, and email me if you are interested so i can get you hooked up with the people that actually know how to get you signed up
2. go to stonyfield farm’s website and help support SHI by voting for SHI in their “bid with your lid” campaign (they are giving a total of $100,000 to three organizations that help the earth, and each organization will receive $20,000 plus a percentage of $40,000, based on your voting)
3. ) TO VOTE, click on this link

ok, that is it.
leave your comments. check in next week. and be well.