Off to Bolivia!

It's been exactly a week since I have arrived in Akron, PA along with 60 other SALTers, IVEPers and YAMEN members (a total of 130 people altogether). We just concluded our week long orientation here and are about to leave on a jet plane tomorrow around 5:00 pm. It has been quite the week packed with different sessions on culture shock, goal setting, taking care of yourself while you're away, learning about host families and much more! Today was our last day and we began to say goodbye to everyone who we have all had a chance to meet. There are some pretty amazing people that have signed up to go on SALT and I feel so fortunate to get to know them. I met the other 5 SALTers going to Bolivia... all girls.. and they all seem great! The 5 out of the 6 of us will be in the city of Santa Cruz for the year! This week has been one filled with excitement, sadness, nervousness and hope. I set some goals for myself today, and I know that even through the hardest of times things will work out! Today me and a girl named Erin spoke at the commencing at Akron Mennonite Church for all of us and I read a quote that really expresses some things that mean a lot to me. 

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions". 

- Rainer Maria Rilke

So here I am, living these questions I have.. only to hope that I will be challenged and enriched in so many levels. Tomorrow's a big day! 

Here we go...