old hat? new tricks? where in the world...

The Traveling School gathers the tents, the books, the first aid kits, the emergen-c, the nalgenes, the poly-pro, all in the home of our indefatigable director - who has a nursing newborn, a two year old, in-laws, and three teachers all sleeping in the house. We have spent the last month and a half since we got back from Africa creating curricula, organizing lodging, arranging transportation and now we're preparing to head out again.

I can't believe how normal this has all become to me. I wonder if I'll ever really realize the skills I've come to take for granted, and the exhausting moments I've come to see as normal, and perhaps even the unbelievable, incredible experiences I get to have that come to seem commonplace.

Being home this time was just enough to whet my appetite for the other end of this trip though - for being able to be home without that weight of feeling like I'm going to be leaving soon. I wonder what it will be like to commit myself to being in one place for awhile.

But leaving this time has so much less of the desperation of the last times - fear of leaving people I love, of abandoning friends, of nervousness about the trip. It is replaced by a peaceful awareness that this is just for the present moment - that this trip lasts for these months and then I get to put together the pieces. I've gained a lot of trust in those pieces, especially since being home this last time.

So we're in Bozeman now, flying out on Thursday, in Miami for two months and then to Quito! We'll be in Ecuador for two months, Peru for a month, and then hopefully Bolivia for the last two weeks. Its been awesome to get snail mail from people in Africa - I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to get those letters...so in the vein of shameless begging, the addresses are printed below:

To reach us in Quito send by Feb. 20:
The Traveling School
Heather Foran
South American Explorers Club
Apartado 17-21-431
Elroy Alfaro
Quito, Ecuador

To reach us in Cusco send by April 1:
The Traveling School
Heather Foran
South American Explorers Club
Apartado 500
Cusco, Peru

Much love to all of you!