Michael's Story

As I mentioned, Michael really isn't the tree-hugging type. Although he was a committed volunteer member of our local Fire Department for many years, he never understood why I cared so much about the plight of others so far away when there's so much to be done here at home. But one day in September he found himself watching a show on the National Geographic Channel about East Africa, with footage of the Savannah, and the landscape grabbed hold, and he started to feel something new. And he told me he wanted to see it for himself. I said, let's go. Let's just go. So at first it was Africa we planned to see, even though I've been there before. I was just happy he'd latched onto a goal, and one we could share, because things had been getting difficult around here. Michael's work schedule has him commuting 2 hours a day and working 9-10 hour shifts. He's been so overworked that he's continually exhausted, getting frequent headaches and stomach upsets, not to mention insomnia. He is one stressed out dude.

But as I started combing the internet for volunteer agencies we could work with, I found one that also ran programmes in Nepal, and somehow, the African Dream became the Nepali Dream. as it began to appeal to us more and more. Michael has always said he loves mountains, me, I'm an ocean lover, I hate to be far from the sea. But Nepal just seems so vastly far and different, the extreme opposite of where we are. We are at sea level, there we would be within reach of the top of the world, almost. I would like to spend some time in a brand new geography.

We currently have a lot of stress in our lives. A lot of the time Michael and I see each other for maybe 15 minutes a day - I leave for University before 8 am, before he and Naomi get up, and he drops her at her grandma's on his way to work, and I pick her up after class. Unless we wave to one another as we pass each other on the highway in opposite lanes, I don't see him until he gets home around 11 pm. It often seems now that we are the happiest and most animated while planning our trip. Without a bright spot in the future to look forward to, the daily grind is just wearing us down, especially him.