One month from today

I will be on a plane to here:

That's Central America, in case you couldn't tell.  El Salvador is roughly the size of Massachusetts and has beautiful beaches.  But I won't be going there for a vacation.  Remember when I went to Uganda last year?  Well, I just found out a couple weeks ago that I will get to do the same thing this summer in El Salvador.  So you're saying, "What is the 'same thing'?  What do you actually do?"  I think I often assume that people know what I do and what I love, but just in case you've been left out of the loop...

I am on the Board of a non-profit called HELP International, which trains volunteers to do community development and humanitarian service in less developed countries.  This year, in addition to El Salvador and Uganda, we are also working in Thailand, India, Fiji and Belize.  Volunteers will be there May thru August and my job is to visit their projects, support the Country Directors, give them advice (if I have any), and make sure things are running smoothly.  I also get to meet with our in-country partners, as all our projects are done in conjunction with a local organization, making what we do more sustainable.  For an idea of some of the projects, you can click here, but it really varies every year depending on the abilities of our volunteers and the need of our partner organizations.

The last time I was in El Salvador was in 2005, a memorable trip for two reasons:

One, I got to take my brother Mark with me.

eating conejo (I'll let you figure that one out.)

starting the ground for a pig pen

door-to door mosquito abatement program

us with the other volunteers

And two, I was the absolute sickest I have ever been in a foreign country or maybe ever, and it was all thanks to this baby, pineapple strawberry liquado froma street vendor.  Yes, I broke the rules one time and it was really good, but I paid dearly.

We'll see how the trip goes this time.  But I am very, very excited.