The thing I’m looking forward to most about my fast approaching trip is my almost complete lack of plans. I’ve got a one way ticket to Manila and have to be in Beijing for the Olympics but everything in between is up in the air.
One of the things I want to do for sure this time around is volunteer. This is something I’ve never really made time for during my past travels for whatever reason (ie. too much time spent at the pub) and I think if I can find the right opportunity (ie. no religious affiliations and no ‘admin’ fees) then I’ll jump at it.
Well it looks like I’ve found it in an organisation I mentioned in a previous post. Hands On Disaster Relief offer support to communities that have been affected by environmental disasters. It looks like they’ve done some great work so far working on a handful of projects and a new one is starting on January 5th in Bangladesh to help out communities ravaged by a major cyclone.
Well I want to volunteer and I want this trip to be an adventure and I really cant think of many places more adventurous than Bangladesh! So I’ve been in touch and I’m doing some research about visas and flights and if all goes to plan I’ll be rocking up in Dhaka, Bangladesh in mid February to get my hands dirty and hopefully be a helpful part of a team of interesting people.
I’m all for this and will do it for sure barring any visa problems but the problem I’m faced with is a lack of internet access for my entire time there. The village they’re in has no connection so I won’t be able to add any new content or monitor my sites in any way for six to eight weeks. Plus I’ll be working six days a week and will probably be too knackered to write content for my sites. So in web publishing terms, going to Bangladesh will be two months of career suicide!
But it will be a hell of an experience and I’m willing to abandon my sites for a couple months… how many businesses can you even think about doing that with? It might cost me but even if it does I doubt very much that I’ll regret my choice!
Happy New Year guys, here’s to an exciting 2008 for us all!
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