First Post of A New Journey

HELLO WORLD,

Let me start this off by saying I am sorry to those of you who were only following the blog to keep up on the happenings of Community Learning International (CLI).  I have moved on but not away from CLI.  I wholeheartedly stand by what CLI does and the real change that it is having on the ground in Laos.  This being said I jumped at the opportunity to take my talents to Phuket Thailand for the next six months.  I feel that the change of scenery and a new organization will only increase my abilities to do outreach work and if I returned to CLI it would be with more insight from another organization.  As some of you know I have accepted an Office Fellow Position with Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation.  I guess I just have a things for organizations that are a mouthful.  Try translating either of them into Lao for CLI and Thai for Phuket.  Fun stuff.  PHBGTUF is also in the education outreach arena but much more focused on a few locations/schools where volunteers come to teach English to kids.  They also operate a kids camp on weekends called the coconut club.  Obviously I cant give you more detail or  photos because I am still sitting at LAX. 

Over the past year I have written quite a few of these posts from almost this exact seat actually.  These posts are filled with my deepest, darkest and most intense thoughts about going abroad.......or I normally just say I am really nervous about failing.  They are basically the same, right?  As trying to maintain some stability I will continue that here.  I am nervous, scared, and excited about this.  Unlik Laos I go into this having never seen the city I will be living in, having never met the people I will work with, and an actual contract, that has stamps and everything.  In SE Asia stamps mean everything.  I always want to succeed and I want to bring my best to the table every time.  I tried hard in Laos and I sure some people would say I succeeded.  If this experience turns out to be just 50% as successful as Laos then I would be pleased.  I will not stand for that though.  I am making a first impression on PHBGTUF and the people of Thailand.  My job will be a volunteer coordinator along with overall problem causer solver.  I will be the first smiling face volunteers see each day and that day starts a little earlier than I would like i.e. before noon.  I will have more details as I receive them.

I will try my best to keep the blog going but it might be hard to match the output of last year.  This will be more focused on my thoughts but I hope to keep you all interested still.  As always I love comments and questions.  For those of you saying I commented and you never responded the reason for this was one of two things.  1.  I thought your questions were rhetorical or 2. they were about my non-existent love life with all those Laos women.  Sorry.  I will let you all know if I get married thought but other details seem kinda classless.  That being said I will be sure to send you the link to my future wife's modeling profile. I just haven't met her yet.

Things to think about for all you followers and I would love posts.  In baseball each player who walks up to bat has a walkup song.  This 30 second clip is played to pump up not only the crowd but the player.  Some players use Jay-Z other prefer country.  Its open to whatever they chose as long as they are playing at home.  On the road no one gets their song.  I want you to think about what your walkup song would be I will tell you my top 3.

3. Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix
2. E-Pro by Beck
1. 20th Century Boy by T-Rex

Post your walk-up song in the comments section if you like.

If you click on the any of the links they will open in a new page.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.  Extra brownie points if you post a comment!!!