Basic facts

Well I am off to India for the winter - getting away from 10 weeks of the cold, wet and dark stuff.

Leaving 16 December 2009 and returning 3 March 2010 for the sun and the sea.

Most arrangements now made: flights, visa, insurance, jabs, purpose for visit.....

Yes you may well ask - What on earth will you be doing over there?

And the answer is ... Whatever I have been sent for...

I have joined Global Volunteer Projects - a UK Gap year organisation - and signed up for

the India Orphanage posting for two months. It will be in Trivandrum, Kerala, South India.

http://www.globalvolunteerprojects.org/orphanage/india.htm

There is a special place they think would be ideal for me and that is the Cheru Resmi Centre

http://www.cheruresmi.com/about-us.html

Judging from this very informative website there will be plenty of scope for using my multiple talents whether they be childcare, administration, teaching English, care of the elderly, women's empowerment, business startup mentoring.

There are other projects where I may help out as well.

I am really quite happy not to know EXACTLY what I will be doing and am prepared to surrender to whatever happens once I get there.

From what I can gather, I will be living in clean but simple volunteers' accommodation

with a few others. This will be separate from where we work. We will all go off to our various volunteering postings every day and have some time off - weekends I believe - when we can go sight seeing and take short trips "upcountry".

We are mentored locally by a legendary figure called Babu Menon, who has all the connections and knowledge to make our stay a productive one.

Apart from that, I am still at the question asking stage myself so will fill you in further once I know more.

One thing is certain though, and that is, there will be a two week R&R trip to Sri Lanka inserted somewhere during that period - another location I have been longing to visit and only a 30 minute flight away - irresistible!

My state of mind .......

right now is happy, confident and peaceful. My life seems to have fallen into some sort of manageable perspective - at last!

The last six months since resigning from the ABU-Oxford Canadian student programme have been bit of a roller coaster of opening myself up to ideas and opportunities and spiritual guidance.... I was in the realm of NOT KNOWING and WAITING ... that rather scary transition space which seems to have no boundaries and provides no comfort that the end is in sight. Advancing in the dark, following threads that peter out, blind alleys, getting very interested in something that eventually is not right for me...

At a spiritual level I was confident that God would guide me to the RIGHT THING - the true direction - the next step in my journey - which would be full of purpose and allow me to use my many talents.

But at a day to day level, I found this lack of long term "piloting" disconcerting and draining.

I did reassure myself with the conviction that when the right opportunity crossed my bows, I would recognise it. And this, of course, is exactly what has happened.

In a way, for the long term, I don't know where the Kerala opportunity is leading me but I have a strong sense that without it I cannot continue my journey. At 54 I am looking for something meaningful to occupy me for the next 10 years.

Here endeth the first entry of the first BLOG of my life. Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Namaste

Kerala Mad