I have been in San Diego for about a month now and with one week left before my teammates and I head out on the road, I have successfully posted once about my time here! Yikes. This is completely unintentional, and due to the best of reasons...I am happily busy. I do, however, really want you all to be included in this journey so I promise (cross my heart) that I will post regularly from here on out, be it a short paragraph of something we encounter on the road, a video of us working or playing, a heart to heart, or photos. Due to an untimely hard drive crash (it's not if, but when..right?), I don't have photos to share at this particular moment, so I hope you find some beauty in these words. By the way, my mac is all fixed up and dazzled with a new hard drive (with twice the space, I might add)...only without anything, I mean anything I previously had on it. Like...for example...no music in my itunes. At all. Right before a road trip across the Nation. Luckily, A. My external hard drive is at home and it will be restored come May, & B. My beautiful, amazing sister is mailing me some new tunes.
I want to catch you all up on my time here since I last wrote. If I had to choose 5 words to sum up the last 4 weeks I'd say, Full submersion (counts as one!), energizing, empowering, humbling & beautiful. Full submersion because we are here for a reason, and that reason is peace and justice, and peace and justice don't happen when you just dip your toes in. Peace and justice happens when you jump in the water, the cold water that's uncomfortable because you would rather be dry and warm. Energizing because for some reason I can get up at 5:30 in the morning and work until 6:00 at night. Then go to training until 8 pm, head home to make dinner, study, call my sister or my parents, take a shower, and be in bed before 11...ready to do it all again the next day without it phasing me. Empowering because I see so clearly the meaning and the depth in small things, in redundant things, in daily to do's...without these 'small' things we simply would never see big things happen. You really can do more than you think you can, you just have to dig deep. Humbling because life isn't fair. But, when I hear the story of someone who was once abducted or attacked by a rebel army, and is now in University studying to become a teacher or a doctor, I can't help but rethink a few things. And, beautiful because of so many things, but beautiful is how I would describe Invisible Children. Here's my story.
I found out about Invisible Children and learned what a Roadie is back in July. I was only a month out from departing New Zealand and wasn't quite sure what was next for me. One day I was chillin' on Facebook and saw a link one of my friends posted with a tag line that read "More people need to live like this." So I clicked. And I watched the story of Nate Henn, who was a Roadie for Invisible Children and had been for 1 1/2 years. The video highlighted his journey with IC and this hilarious, wonderful, free spirited guy filled the screen, he was so candid that as the video played I felt like I was watching a friend. The story goes on from there, and instead of writing it out for you, I will let you watch it... http://vimeo.com/13381060
This was my introduction to Invisible Children and what inspired me to apply for a roadieship. Amazingly, I was accepted and am now almost 5 weeks in to a 4 month journey that has already shed new light for me. My days are busy, my job is demanding, my time is not mine, and it's a relief. Not in the sense of running away from anything, that's not the case at all. It's more for me a relief because I'm seeing the world so clearly outside of my own. My routine is gone, my familiar surroundings are gone, my things are packed away at home, their distraction is gone. My world is gone, for a moment, so I can focus on some one else's world. This is a beautiful thing that Invisible Children has given me the opportunity to do. We hit the road in a few days and I can't wait.
I'll post very soon with an introduction to my AMAZING team, until then...
Live
and
love.
Rachel
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