Mayhem is going to Haiti!

EDIT: PayPal, as we all know, has been a horrendous company to work with and I knew this to start. I just wanted an easy way for people to help. Please standby while I come up with a new way to raise funds.

Long time followers of my blog may recall that I spent most of summer 2009 in Tanzania working at a hospital and out in the community. It was an incredible trip and I am pleased to say that I will be actively volunteering once again this summer in Haiti. For the month of July I will be trying to repair and restore some tiny pieces of the monumental disaster that occurred there in January.

They say that there are stages to learning. In the first stage, you are so ignorant about something that you can’t even conceive of all the things you don’t know. You don’t have any questions because you don’t know what to ask. In the second stage you can finally see the hurdles in front of you and there are sooo many you find it to be impossible. In the stage after that you start to acquire the tools needed to meet your challenges and in the final stage you have mastered a skill.

This time last year I was incredibly ignorant about how my trip to Tanzania would look. I could intellectualize what I was going to see and experience, but I was knocked onto my ass by the whole thing. I was present for a birth, a death, and for a stillborn birth. I helped clean up some gangrene. I was emotionally overwhelmed and in awe of the strong feelings I had about everything. Nothing was mediocre and I every emotion I felt was a superlative. It’s exhausting to have that many feelings.

At the end of it, I learned so much and had some obvious growth as a result. I look at the world and myself differently and it always comes with a sense that I want to go back. It’s not just wanderlust or the desire to try new foods and see new things, it’s this sense that I have a huge enemy skulking about that I am not done fighting. In this instance, I have been called to a new place and I am eager to bring the skills I have developed.

Unlike my last trip, I am not financially supported this time around. All available cash has gone into raw materials for Haiti. There is no grant for me to rely on and so I am asking for your help to get me there and to bring the most effective set of supplies possible. Everywhere you go, there is a fundraiser for Haiti. It’s in the commercial goods we buy, it’s in our text messages, and on TV and radio. I know that you may feel burned out by this, but I am asking you to go a step further and help get me to Haiti.

I recently received word that I have been accepted into a great organization that is non-governmental, non-religious, and effective. My room and board will be covered, but it is going to be bare bones. I’ll be staying in a tent with my fellow relief workers and eating local food as we focus on rebuilding and supporting a small city a few hours out of the capital. If you have any spare cash to help a lady out, please send it my way. Know that I am going to give 110% for the month of July and I will make your support go as far as possible. I am lucky to have great travel companions (a great friend and my partner the now-infamous Ned) and I’m ready to get dirty. Your donations and support are deeply appreciated.