Better late then never

A couple of weekends ago I was in the border town of Malaba, a place I go often to shop for produce at the market and do my banking.  The town is right on the Kenyan/Ugandan border so there's a lot of activity there, with many large trucks waiting to carry their goods from one country to another.  I was sitting in a hotel (what they call restaurants here) having a cold soda with a teacher friend, watching the hustle and bustle of border life when I saw a very large white truck with "G Adventures" painted on the side.  The week before that I saw a similar truck that had "Intrepid Travels" painted on the side.  When I went to India in 2008/2009,  for two of my five weeks there I traveled with an organized trip through what was then Gap Adventures and is now called G Adventures.  I traveled through Rajasthan, Agra and Varanasi with some wonderful people who, thanks to Facebook, I'm still in touch with today.  In the years following that trip I often fantasized about traveling to Africa and would spend hours on the websites of these travel companies planning my next adventure.  I even put a deposit down on an Intrepid Travels trip to East Africa but when they changed the dates and offered a refund, I took it and backed out of the trip.  Now, here I am, living in Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer.  When I saw those trucks in the border town, I was reminded of the yearning I had when I would travel, to not just be a tourist but to actually experience daily life in a foreign culture.  I imagined myself, sitting on one of those big white trucks, staring out the window at the scenery passing by and wishing I could just plant myself down somewhere for a little while to really experience the culture there.  I am so grateful that I finally followed that yearning and took a giant leap to follow my dream.  Life here in Western Kenya is not without its challenges, but I remember that feeling I had while traveling in foreign lands and I am so glad that I no longer have to wonder what it might be like.  My driving force through all of this was the fear that I might die with regret.  Regret that I didn't follow that yearning in my gut and dare to make big changes in my life.  But now here I am and though I'm really missing the Bay Area, I do not regret for a single minute that I joined the Peace Corps and moved to Kenya.

I've been terrible about updating this blog.  Writing is an effort for me and it's not something I naturally turn to in my free time.  But I am really missing all of the people I left behind and want to commit to keeping in touch more regularly.  This platform is the best way to do that, so stay tuned for further updates.