Read this first

On Aug. 5 I will embark on my second trip to Central America. Last summer I spent a month in Guatemala and a few days in Belize. This summer I will be traveling with my friend Allegra through Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua and then meeting Rob in Costa Rica. In total I will be away for six weeks. Four of those weeks will be focused on learning and practicing Spanish. The last two weeks I hope to spend walking through the jungle, surfing, white water rafting and sitting on the beach.

I have decided to keep in touch with my friends and family through this blog. The idea of trying to keep a public journal is somewhat disconcerting. I am used to private journaling, writing things I do not expect anyone to read. My hope is that I can balance the honesty and clear communication so that you will get a sense of the places I am visiting and understand the experience of being there affects me. I expect that at some points my journal will address socially taboo topics such as politics and religion. It may be mildly offensive to some, full of grammatical and spelling errors, or just plain indecipherable. I ask that you read it graciously and forgive the shortcomings of a one-sided conversation to a diverse group and the technological challenges of being in developing countries.

I know it is uncommon for a young wife to leave her husband for a month to travel in third-world countries. It will be painful to be away from him. However, it is his love that gives me the freedom to pursue the fullest life that I can. For some reason, I am compelled to seek this fullness in the broken beauty of places where gratitude and poverty coexist in the midst of awesome landscape and a twinge of danger.

One way to articulate it:
I realized that I was not going just because it seemed like a good idea, but because those who love me most sent me on my way with affection, support, and prayers. The more I realized that I was truly loved, the more I felt the inner freedom to go in peace and let all inner debate about motivation subside...
Latin America: impressive wealth, degrading poverty, splendid flowers, and dusty broken roads, loving people and cruel torturers, smiling children and solders who kill. It is here that we have come to look for God's treasure.(Nouwen, Grasias, p. 9).

Henri Nouwen, a priest also trained in psychology, is my favorite author. He traveled and wrote extensively about Latin America. Last year on my trip I read the book Gracias. I copied these two quotes into my journal and they still resonate with me very strongly.