The Ripple Effect

 

 

 

Well, here we are, two middle-aged, almost-empty-nesters.  And we've decided to move to Peru.  Granted it's not forever, and granted we haven't thrown all caution to the winds, but for us this is a big step. 

There are a lot of good reasons for it, some of them easier to define than others.  We've been feeling unsettled for a while now.  Our kids don't really need us anymore.  They need our cars, and someone to buy cheese from time to time, but they don't really need US anymore.  Murray was between jobs and looking for a new challenge.  I'm starting to feel a tad old and useless.  More importantly though, we have been tapped heavily on the shoulder about what we could and should be doing to make the world a better place. 

About 7 years ago we started sponsoring a child in Ecuador through an organization called Compassion International, and really, that was the beginning of a big change for us.  Ecuador was just another country until someone we cared about lived there.  Hearing about life from this boy we sponsored, and then travelling to meet him and his family, left us different people.  We had travelled and enjoyed some beautiful places on our vacations and still had a long list of places we wanted to go.  But we were no longer content to consider a destination as pretty scenery and interesting food.  We had been awakened to the fact that most of the world is a place of struggle and hardship.  In our own little corner of the world we are insulated against the daily difficulties that the majority of the people on this planet face. 

When we visited Ecuador, I was acutely aware of our size.  We stuck out like sore thumbs wherever we went.  We were too much of everything--too tall, too fat, had too much money, too many gadgets, too-heavy clothing. I felt gigantic and obtrusive everywhere I went.  And vaguely guilty despite being welcomed with open arms by everyone we visited.  I wanted to be small and insignificant, to observe instead of being stared at.  Despite this uncomfortable experience of having and being "too much", we also came away with the knowledge that sharing even a small portion of our resources had the potential to change someone's life.

Now, lest I sound a little too pious and self-sacrificing, I will tell some truth here.  We have not sold all our possessions and given our money to the poor.  We have not sacrificed everything to make this happen.  We've made sacrifices, to be sure, and will continue to make them for this.  We will go into debt big-time to finance this venture.  We have given up business opportunities that could have led to bigger and better things, financially speaking.  Our kids will be living without us for an indefinite period of time, and our senior mothers will continue to age while we're away.  It will be difficult to learn a new language, to make new friends and to experience a completely different culture.  It will be hot, humid, and we still don't have a clue where we'll be living or how long we'll be staying there.  We're a little scared of the implications of all that.  

So what's in it for us that a couple weeks someplace hot couldn't accomplish?   This is the hard part to explain.  There are certainly some perks: 

~We'll get to travel somewhere interesting.
~We'll get to learn another language. 
~We'll get to escape the Canadian winter. 

Whoot!  All good things. But there is something else that trumps all of those benefits:
We feel that this is a chance to give back.  It's an opportunity for us to use the education, experience and resources we have been blessed with to further something other than our own agendas.  We have been given things most people cannot begin to dream of, and this is our chance to share some of that.  We believe that when you share your material wealth you help people, certainly, for a time.  Then the money runs out.  But when you share your knowledge and experience as well, you show people that they are worth investing in, and leave them with a well that never runs dry. 

Murray will be a volunteer with Cuso International, working with a Peruvian organization that is developing markets for medicinal plants.  These plants have the potential to provide an alternative income to growing coca (the plant from which cocaine is derived).  They survive and thrive in the shelter of jungle trees, a sensitive ecosystem which is currently the subject of intense interest from logging companies.  If there are ways to promote preservation of the Amazon jungle and to provide a better livelihood for subsistence farmers through marketing their traditional medicinal plants, then this has the best of all possible outcomes for the people of Peru.  And we want to be part of that. 

We are, admittedly, idealists.  There will be things that we do or say that accomplish nothing.  There will be frustrations and defeats.  But hopefully there will also be new friendships, encouragement and empowerment, on both sides of the equation.  And change.  We want to be changed, because changed people change the world, wherever they stand.

So we stand on the cusp of this small big thing.  We don't know what life will look like for us there.  We know we have such a short time in Peru to accomplish something that matters.  But we also know that we, like other volunteers with CUSO and similar organizations around the world, can effect positive change.  Not alone, but together, we all make change happen.  Like a stone dropped in water, the ripples spread. 

We leave for Peru on September 2nd and a flurry of preparation still lies ahead of us. The letters I write in this blog in the days and months ahead will be a way for us to share our experiences and to stay in touch with our friends and family.  It's also an opportunity to raise awareness of the needs in Peru and how CUSO and other volunteers like us are working to meet those needs.   I hope you'll join us in this adventure and that perhaps you too will be changed, a little at a time. 

Hasta pronto!

“We can't be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don't have something better.” ~ C. Joybell C.