14 days.

Or more. Or less. The unknowns have been narrowed to when. I know I will be working in Madang with the provincial department of education. I have my passport, medical, dental and legal clearances. I have visited family and friends, quit my temporary, one-day a week job, researched development in PNG, and compiled an extensive list of books I must read (thanks Abby). Most of the preparations that are involved with moving overseas are still in order from when I left for Zambia one year ago. No need to stress about creating a living will, appointing a power of attorney, getting vaccinations, quitting my job, or selling and/or giving away all my worldly possessions such as my car, furniture, clothes and all the other things one thinks they must have. Preparations are fairly simple at this point. The day before I leave I will throw a few things in a backpack and find comfort in knowing that I can get most everything else in-country.

It’s amazing what a small blue book can mean to a person. It means freedom to explore, to discover the world, to have endless possibilities. I had to send my book of freedom to Ottawa without knowing when I would see it again. VSO needs my passport to apply for my work visa. To apply for my visa a letter from PNG is required. As previously stated, PNG’s visa process is long and complicated. One couple from NY had been waiting for their letter since October 2007 and finally received it 5 days ago. My visa letter could be on a desk in an office somewhere in PNG. At least I hope it is! VSO informed me that all we can do is wait. So I wait. I check my email in hopes of news of an arrival date. I do not want waiting to mean doing nothing and living in the future. I want to live in the moment, right here, right now. To most it would be a temporary break from one’s life but to me nothing has changed, I have been on a break for 5 months. No place of my own, no job, no car, and none of the things one thinks they must have. A description of a freegan, a nomad, a homeless beggar perhaps? Not at all. It’s just me, who expected to leave in February, soaking up moments like a sponge in the waters of the pacific. No schedules or appointments, no phone or transport, no passport, no idea of when. Would you like it? At times I am not certain that I do. Then I remind myself of a script given to me by my Peace Corps recruiter.

If we do not offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes will not lift to the horizon; our ears will not hear the sounds around us. We pass our days in a routine that is both comfortable and limiting. We soon wake up to find we have lost our dreams in order to protect our days. Fear of the unknown and the lure of comfortable space will conspire to keep you from taking the chances you should take. But if you take a chance, you will never regret the choice. To be sure, there will be moments of doubt when you stand alone on an empty road in the pouring rain, or when you are ill with fever in a rented bed. But as the pains of the moment will come; so will they ever fade away. In the end you will be so much richer, so much stronger, so much happier, and so much the better person for having taken the risk and hardship. There will be nothing to compare to the insight you have gained.