How Did We Get Here?

This trip has been a long time in the making which makes it all the more surreal that this is actually happening. I volunteered almost four years ago in the North Western Central Desert of Australia. In a small Indigenous community, which was a 6 hour drive on a bad road to Alice Springs, where the living was quite hard and the politics were rife. l volunteered for three months with the school and youth recreation team and l found myself falling in love with learning a different culture, a different language and sharing knowlege between the two. After this l got a job and stayed on in Kintore working in the Aged and Disability Center (Ngintaka Women's Organisation) and what ensued was one of the hardest years of my life and without doubt the most rewarding. Many amazing friendships and memories were formed and an enourmous appreciation for what l grew up with were cemented during this time.

After about 9 months working in Kintore l realised that you need a skill to share and offer in such conditions and l decided to return to Mellbourne to do a post graduate degree in Occupational Therapy (OT). The decision to do OT came about as l saw many of the women l worked with had significant physical/ health issues, cultural influences and environmental barriers that impacted on being able to work a full time job. Also through working closely with the old women l saw how important it was for them to continue participating in traditional occupations and the benefits that meaningful occupation/ participation offers. This was all supported by a subsequent volunteer who came to Kintore who was an OT from Sydney, we would have long chats about occupation and participation and the decision was made to study occupational therapy.

I had decied that once graduated from the course l would work for two years  in Melbourne and then head off to do some more volunteer/ remote work. I decided that l was not yet ready to return to the Territory and so focused my sights overseas. I had been tossing up South America, Northern Asia and North/ Eastern Europe. My boyfriend then said he was going to do a year long motorbike trip from Canada down through the USA, Central and South American, all the way down to the tip of Argentina and back up to Brazil. So decision made, we both would have amazing adventures at the same time and get to catch up every now and then to share some adventure!

From here l started saving, convincing my parents that l would be safe and researching NGO's and all the different countries in the region, and decided on Mexico and Bolivia. So here l am. In Mexico starting an amazing adventure that will lead to five months here and then onto Bolivia for another five, with a bit of travel in between. Who knows what will happen in all of this!