Promise kept

I did promise another blog post didn’t I?

CIEE Service-Learning Cape Town, South Africa was incredible. Once again, I met amazing people, created phenomenal relationships and learned much about myself, people and our world. I feel like these experiences are continually developing who I am and my purpose in this life, with the constant always to serve and love.

What did I learn?
1. Kids are kids. Sick children from disadvantaged families in Africa need the same love that healthy children from wealthy families in America. All kids like to play and run, all kids like attention, care, affection and love. They NEED it actually, in order to develop into a person with the self esteem to stand up for themselves, and become good, active world citizens.

2. I LOVE kids. This is something I already knew, but now I’m thinking that when I eventually do settle down into this idea of a “real adult, real world” job, it will most certainly have children involved.

3. On this trip, I feel I have finally become a confident traveler. I know that I can get from point A to point B, on my own without someone to hold my hand. Whether that’s in a different city, state or country. I know to use common sense about safety and make smart decisions. In this aspect I feel like the world has been opened to me now, that I can truly go anywhere. Anywhere I am needed, where there is work to be done or people to be loved.

4. It is possible to be depressed and discouraged, yet inspired and optimistic at the same time. I saw stark contrasts between very rich and very poor. Observed a youth culture uninterested in volunteer work and service. People struggling with addiction and substance abuse. Sickness. Poor education systems. Violence. It all saddens me to no end. But I see the one girl I tutored, loved and played games with. Whose self-confidence grew. Who told me she wants to be a doctor to make little kids like her feel better. The more I learn, serve, travel and experience, the more I see how very important education is, in ALL aspects. Education about issues that are going on in the world. Education to dissipate hatred and prejudice. Education of girls living in poverty. EDUCATION. As Nelson Mandela (who I learned a lot about this semester) said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” and I have to agree. Specifically girls education. Read this article. and watch this video Girl Effect

5. So that is what I want to do. Something with girls education. Someday. Big picture and big goal.

For now, I’m home in Grand Haven, MI. Coming back from South Africa, I was concerned that my summer would be quite boring, the months before AmeriCorps (more on that later). My summer has been anything BUT boring!

Things un-boring:

-providing childcare for amazing kids with theme weeks such as Bike Week, Splash Bash week, Help the Homeless week, Book week, Animal week etc etc with field trips to museums, beach, library and so on. This is my normal summer schedule. Babysit 8-6ish, family dinner, bike ride, read, sleep.

-Road tripping to Amarillo, TX to visit Bike & Build SUS’11!! Driving with my mom, and best friend Kelly’s mom Renee, picking up Jesse Bright (from my CUS’10 B&B trip) to join in the fun. Biking with SUS’11 and friends Kelly, Summer and Will (also from CUS’10, who is a leader on SUS’11). Almost dying from the terrible heat (imagine, biking in 109 degree temp, against headwinds, for 90 miles!) I couldn’t finish either day I biked with them, it made me feel ridiculous. I was able to ride every mile of every ride on my trip, but couldn’t even complete one full ride of SUS. The heat completely wrecked me. Besides the heat it was a lovely reunion of friends!!! This trip to Amarillo was really the only thing making it ok for me to leave South Africa-Summer and Kelly are like sisters to me and I had been looking forward to seeing them again for months, and seeing them on their Bike & Build trip! We also spent their day off together which was quite nice indeed. It was another sad goodbye, but I could look forward to the surprise trip I would be making later…

-Visit to Mount Pleasant! Seeing lots and lots of old friends, sharing South Africa stories and catching up on life. People: Kate, Ariel, Viginia, Rich, Edde, Carly, Sarah, George, Emily, Maeghan and many more.

-Mini Midwest South Africa reunion! With Karina and Chelsea. Trip to South Bend (hey Burchetts!) then Chicago, then Wisconsin lake house for relaxing and reminiscing. It was so very lovely to see these girls again-I love them so very much.

-Rich and Edde, and Kathi and Jack came down to Grand Haven for camping and to visit! My Habitat for Humanity people. We had a cookout and went to a concert at the waterfront stadium for a group that played music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. And Lady Gaga.

-1 year Anniversary of biking into the Pacific Ocean. July 31. To commemorate this occasion, I biked to the beach (yay Lake Michigan!!) and ran into the water in my bike shorts. I also attempted to do the haka, but failed miserably. I believe I just mumbled some gibberish and splashed the water a bit. Far enough away from the children as to not frighten the parents. It was nice, but this was better: Cannon Beach Celebration What a day that was a year ago. Arriving at the Pacific ocean after BIKING there from the pacific, building houses and spreading awareness along the way. I still have a hard time believing that really happened.

-Dog/house sitting!


-TRIP TO MONTERAY, CALIFORNIA TO CELEBRATE SOUTHERN US’11 B&B FINISH!!! Renee (Kelly’s mom) and I flew (not quite as crazy as my friends who drove last year…) to surprise our dear dear loved ones on SUS’11 and show them just how much we care. How proud we are. Support them in this big accomplishment. We flew in through LA, so we were able to visit Zach and Lindsay from my CUS’10 before driving to Monteray. Where we waited ALL DAY for them to arrive. Seriously, they didn’t arrive until 6pm. The entire time my mind was battling “yay! They need to spend as much time as they can on the road together today, I want them to take as long as possible” and “why don’t they just get here already!! Uggggggg I just want to see them and yell and scream and cry!!!” Also, I must mention that this day, their trip end August 3rd, was freezing cold, overcast and sprinkling on and off: an extremely ironic way to end SUS’11 the hottest and driest route in existence (and arguably the hardest, most challenging and most hardcore). When they finally did arrive emotions were high. They had all gone slow the last bit, together, because Summer had to walk for she crashed earlier in the week and split her knee open. But she did it, she walked over 2.5 miles to the beach, to the ocean. And everyone came in together. Tears came to my eyes as I watched them slowly roll in. It was difficult to be on the other side of this, knowing what they are going through and what they have gone through. What they will be going through in the next weeks post-bike&build. Then I saw Kelly, and we hugged and cried. And then Summer, who first yelled at me saying “You asshole, I wasn’t going to cry today” and then we proceeded to hug and cry. Then I sought out Will to congratulate him on crossing the country yet again, biking Atlantic to Pacific for the second time. I was so happy I met the team in Amarillo, because I was able to hug and congratulate every member of the SUS’11 team. I’m so proud of them all. They certainly have endured some hard hard challenges. The next morning Renee and I helped hunt down bike boxes and printed out shipping labels. Said our goodbyes and drove back to LA, where we met up with Zach, Lindsay and their adorable puppy Zoe for dinner. Bummed I couldn’t meet up with Heather, but hopefully next time I’m in Cali.

-home for one day before driving back to the Detroit airport to pick Elayna and Summer up! Elayna has been working for AmeriCorps in El Paso, TX check out her blog: http://ayearinthelifeelpaso.blogspot.com/ and is coming into town for our friend Virginia’s wedding on August 13th!! Mt P for one night and then…

-Mini Bike & Build CUS’10 reunion! Aileen, Alyson (two of my trip leaders), Alyson’s friend Dana and I met down at the Indiana dunes for some hiking and beaching. It was great! On our way back to Grand Haven, we stopped for a concert by The Steel Wheels in Benton Harbor and met up with Kate Burchett and her mom. They are this amazingly talented bluegrass/Americana group that is currently on a biking concert tour! They bike from once town to the next to perform! We very much enjoyed it. The next day was filled with exploring Grand Haven, and then Kelly (who only flew in just that morning) came out for dinner with us as well. Bike & Build dinner! YAY!

-hmmm it seems that once again I have talked very much about Bike & Build in my South Africa blog. I’ll probably talk a lot about South Africa in my AmeriCorps blog this coming fall….

Yes, so not a boring summer at all! And in less than 2 months I will be leaving Michigan once more, on to the next adventure!

Starting October 6, I will begin my AmeriCorps NCCC term. I will be stationed in Sacramento, California and will be volunteering and servicing in the Pacific Region of the United States. I’ll be traveling throughout the states in the region from community to community for 6-8 weeks at a time; serving in whatever way is needed. Education, disaster relief, nature conservation, affordable housing, etc etc. My housing, food, and uniform will be provided. I will receive a living stipend and at the end of my term (ten months) I will receive an education award which can be used toward paying off student loans!! This is really the perfect opportunity for me right now: volunteering, traveling and paying off student loans while I figure out whats next. (Grad school? Real adult job? PeaceCorps??? Who knows?!?!?) Perfect. I’m beginning to get excited.

I’ll try to keep a new blog for my AmeriCorps experience if you are interested in following my life’s journey. Thank you for reading, following and sharing these experiences with me!

Ps sorry this one is so long as well!!
peace and love
kristen