The Rollercoaster Effect by Jessica

You know the feeling, it's the one you get as you wait in line for that huge rollercoaster. It's the most popular ride in the park so you have been waiting in line for hours. You and your friends know exactly when you are going to scream, put your hands in the air, and you have even prepared the perfect silly face for the camera. But as you get closer and begin to really look at the huge drop and listen to the screaming people that butterfly feeling begins in your stomach and you hear all the people screaming as they drop. The clickety-clack of the upward moving rollercoaster seems to pound through your head and you begin to wonder whether this is maybe not the smartest thing to do, and then you've boarded. The suspense kills you as you move upward and all of your common sense seems to have been left back down on the solid ground. Then your falling and that inexplainable high fills you as you float through the ride and when you stop you can't believe it is over. And this happens every time you do it.

If you haven't figured out the metaphor yet this is pretty much how our whole family is feeling. We are all done planning and getting ready and all that we have left to do is dwell on our upcoming adventure and everything that might go wrong. But the best part about all that is after we go up the only place left to go is down and once we get going it's going to be a blast.

24 hours and counting......

Answering a Few Questions

There seems to 4 repeated questions regarding our trip. The first is "why are we going?" I feel our first blog posting answered that fairly well, but the other 3 questions are as follows.

2) What are the kids doing for schooling? Well we are blessed to have a school that thinks this trip is one great education and has given us 100% support. There will be some math and reading, but nothing so much as to make real teachers out of their parents.

3) What are you bringing on this trip? Not much. The picture shows the backpacks each one of us will carry on the plane along with a small handbag. The reason is quit simple; we will be moving about the countries so often that we just didn't want the headache of being bogged down with stuff. It also helps we are spending the first 3 months in a hot climate; so no need for heavy cloths. In all honesty I still can't believe Cari went for this, but after all she did marry me.

4)What are you going to eat? I have to say this question cracks me up, and I am surprised this is one of the most common questions. My only answer to this one is "when we get hungry enough I guess we will eat whatever everyone else is eating".

With only 5 days from take off I am starting to compile an extensive list of my own questions. I feel God is reminding me of what he laid on my heart 3 years ago, which is to simply to go and experience life outside of my comfort zone.

The Process of Elimination

We have had a lot of questions about how we are packing for this trip....well that has been pretty interesting. I prefer to call it “eliminating” rather then packing and the process goes something like this.

Kurt decides for the family that we need to keep it SIMPLE and simple means we travel only with one small size carry-on backpack per person, ( mine being just somewhat larger then my favorite big red purse I manage to fill for a days travel to work and the grocery store and all stops in between) but this is ok I can see the logic in this. Especially if the Campbell family needs to run along the train tracks to swing up onto a fast moving train, ford a fast rushing river or flee from a herd of angry elephants or anything along these lines. I, however, can still picture doing all those things successfully with a somewhat larger sized nice square suitcase on wheels. He is also convinced we can just pick up things we need as we go. I however am skeptical of being able to pick up clothes or shoes made for a slightly generous sized middle aged women with size 10 feet in Laos, Cambodia or Thailand so I prefer to pack what I need.

But I am ok with this...really.....
Sometime late last summer we started acquiring items off the sale racks....(the irony in the amount of money we have spent on preparing for this eye opening travel experience to less developed countries does not escape me!) These must-have items mostly consisting of shirts and pants you can wear continuingly for 4 months that are odor free, bug free, wrinkle free and whatever else free; underwear for all of us that you can wash in the sink or water bottle or whatever else you have handy and will probably dry in 4-7 days in a tropical climate, hats, socks, the perfect hiking/walking shoes, sandals etc...etc....keep piling up next to our backpacks.

Then the day comes when we “practice” packing it all in to the backpacks. Obviously there is no amount of rolling, folding, vacuum packing, or any other creative method that will allow me to have 3 pairs of shoes, any hygienic amount of under things or even close to enough clothes. So we get to the process of eliminating, making choices between my shoes and any clothes for the kids, or underwear and swimsuits (can’t they be the same thing??) or say deciding between bringing deodorant or malaria medicine, snacks or travel information.

After many attempts and some bribery paid out to the kids for space rental in their backpacks I closed my backpack! then I realized, there is no medicine....no snacks.......no bug spray....no gifts for our hosts and hostesses so for now it would appear that I am back to wearing 2 pairs of shoes and 3 layers of clothes on the plane but I am close!!

The good news about our packing is that we are fully aware and very comfortable with the fact that we are not cool. It is an advantage to know this from the start as it eliminates any pressure at all to keep up the appearance of “cool” So remember that if you see me...a frumpy middle-aged women dressed like an Indiana Jones groupie running after a train with my wet underwear hanging out to dry on my backpack that I already know I am not cool so it is ok to laugh!- just doing my little part to tickle the world’s funny bone!

Back to the process of elimination!

The Plan

It is interesting as you start planning a trip like this how God has things fall into place. We had a couple goals in planning this trip. The first goal is to see first hand the awesome things World Concern is doing around the world. Kurt's long time involvment with World Concern has instilled in us a desire to learn more and to experience how World Concern is changing lives in some tough areas. We knew that this would bring us to places outside the normal touristy spots, outside our comfort zone and will open our eyes to how a vast majority of the world lives.
The second goal was simple...we wanted to show the kids (and ourselves) new places, new people, different cultures; maybe even find a corner or two without a Starbucks! After many countless hours spent on Airtreks trying to plan the "perfect" itinerary that would fit in our budget we hit on a great combination.

We will start our trip by visiting SE Asia. We are exicited to travel in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. We will be able to visit many World Concern projects as well as spend time in Chiang Rai with friends Pete and Mary Quesenberry. We will continue our trip in Africa spending a short time in Kenya to see a bit of World Concern's microfinance projects then on to Zambia.We will spend time with friends of ours Dan and Tina Moyer and see some of their work with Grace Ministries. We will end the trip traveling in Greece and in Ireland. All with one little carry on backpack each! ( oops.....more on that later)

So that's the plan....until it changes!

What Are We Thinking

The idea of taking our family on this adventure started with a desire almost 3 years ago to see, and to some degree feel, how other people go about their lives around the world. We have the hope of gaining a greater understanding of the world; the people in it and our place and responsibility to it. This idea has had its share of road blocks. After some initial problems to overcome, mostly concerning work and school the doors to what looks like an amazing adventure have been opened. In the past our family has been fortunate to participate in short term mission trips to various countries, but always felt we were only dipping our toes in the water. Our hope during the next 4 months is to dive in deeper and to come back with perspective greater than the one we left with.So.....we are diving in, the backpacks are bought and almost stuffed, countless hours have been spent on the internet, a small fortune has been spent in immunizations and medicines and off we go........26 days and counting....