The Beginning

For the longest time, I have dreamed of going on an international volunteer trip.  Whether it be doing medical work in Africa (a goal back during my pre-med days) or working with impoverished communities in South and Central America, I have always wanted to take a trip somewhere new and spend my time not primarily touring and vacationing, but helping.  After 24 years of not following through on this goal, I found myself with seven weeks during my law school summer vacation with nothing but time and nothing to do.  It is finally time to do something that I have been dreaming of for as long as I can remember.

On June 30, I will be taking off from Dallas-Fort Worth and flying to Cusco, Peru, with layovers in San Salvador and Lima.  From July 1 to August 3, I will be teaching English and working in a local Cusco orphanage Monday through Friday.  My weekends are open, and I hope to spend them exploring both the city and the surrounding Andes Mountains.  The area is full of outdoor activities from whitewater rafting to fishing to mountain biking.  I plan to spend my weekends doing as many as I can.  Travel-wise, my trip will culminate with a four day, three night trek along the Sacred Inca Trial that leads to Machu Picchu.  After that, I fly to Lima for a few days before returning to Texas.

Although I finished planning the trip late last year, it took on a more personal meaning in January.  Before then, admittedly, I was nervous about going to a poor nation another continent away by myself.  But after the passing of my father that month, the trip began to take on a deeper significance to me than a simple volunteer project normally does.  I hope that in someway I will be able to relate with those who have lost family members so close to them, and turn my loss into something purposeful and positive both for others’ sake and for the memory of Dad.

I am writing my first blog so that I can update my family and friends with pictures and stories from my trip.  The name of the blog, “Otra Página,” comes from my favorite quote.  I first saw the quote when I was abroad in Spain during the summer after my sophomore year at the University of Texas.  The quote is by St. Augustine, and I saw it on a decorative wall in a hostel in Valencia.  It read, “El mundo es un libro y quienes no viajan leen sólo una página.”  I have always remembered the quote in Spanish because of where I first discovered it, and it translates to “The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only a page.”  “Otra Página” means “Another Page.”

Scott