I made it on the flight!

I just found out that they fixed my plane ticket and I am ON the flight to INDIA!!! YEA!!! Lots of phone calls and complaints but I have seats!!! YEA! I don't even care that they are in economy class!!!!! Coming home is a different story... The travel agent somehow released the booking and they are currently unable to find me a seat on the flights back home (on December 18th). I told them that I would be more than willing to sacrifice and move up to First Class :) Hopefully they will figure it out... they've got two weeks to do so!!

India here I come!!!!! YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!

Urgent cares and no plane tickets?

And I haven't even left the country yet!!! Of course, this would not be a "Sheri-venture" without a little drama to get the ball rolling! I am hopping on a plane later today and am just about ready. Yesterday (well all week really) I'd been having trouble with my asthma. I was just dealing with it until yesterday it got pretty bad and I thought "hmmm... do I really want to have trouble breathing in India?" On second thought, let's go get it checked out (I know, I know, All my friends who constantly try to get me to go to the doctor are secretly cheering right now. The words of my friend Christina still ring in my ears from last November "Ok, so if you still can't breathe in two days you are going to the doctor then? Did you just hear yourself say that Sheri?!?!?!"). $80 later and armed with two inhalers and pills for a Steroid I headed home to go online and get some seats on the plane (you can only sign up for the seats within 24 hours of your flight). I was unable to log in so I called British Airways and was able to talk to the meanest lady on their staff. I'm not kidding, she answered the phone with "hello, how can I not help you, I want to be as difficult as possible eventhough you are freaking out about your ticket right now." Ok, well maybe not really :) Long story short, she tells me that the travel agent never booked my ticket. I have a reservation but not a ticket. What does this mean? IT means that when I go to the airport, I would have to buy another ticket!!!!! Awesome! I tried to call the travel agent but their customer service was closed for the night (darn living on the west coast and not EST!!!). I was able to speak to a n agent for "new travel" (hey, I was desperate here!). They gave me a ticket number so I called BA back and gave them the ticket #. They were able to find the ticket but for some reason I was booked in two classes (economy and business) and I would need to call my travel agent to have them fix it. I called the travel agent back but they couldn't help... my only option would be to call customer service in the morning. I headed to bed thinking "I am totally going to get stuck with the middle seat all the way to India because everyone else has already gotten their seats." I awoke this morning and spoke to a bright and cheerful woman named Sandy w/ my travel agent. She agreed to call BA and sort it all out and call me back within 15-20 minutes. She just called a moment ago (45 minutes later). I asked her how it was going and she said "really good but I am going to have to call you back again after I talk to a supervisor and a manager." Hmmmm.... what could that mean?!?!?! Really good implies that maybe I'll get lucky enough to get the seat in business class... however, talking to a manager could be a good or a bad thing. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!!! Maybe there will be a silver lining in all this! What a great story to start the trip with! :)

Gratitude...

I'd like to take a moment to process some of my feelings about this journey of getting to India. When I decided a year ago that I wanted to participate in a Global Village trip to India, I never could have imagined that I would be where I am today. It has been a long process but one that has humbled me tremendously. As most of you know, I am not normally one to ask for help...in fact, I am one of the least likely people to ask for help. Having been raised to always do things on my own... I learned not to rely on anyone but to make things happen on my own. After talking with a friend last year who said "you would be surprised at how many people would want to help you. What you are doing is noble and people want to give. Would you really rob them of that opportunity?" I tried to see things in a different light. Even with that advice, it was hard to ask you all for donations and support. This year has taught me much about the kindness of others. It has really shown me that people are not only invested in my life, but they are happy to help me and support me in my passions. Sometimes, being over 30 and childless, I envy friends and family that have had bridal showers, baby showers and the like because in those moments your friends gather together to celebrate a life event with you. Not having had any of those moments, this year has been my year to be "showered" by love and affection. Some people have given me money (often from people I never would have expected it to come from!), others have given me resources (laptops, clothes, etc) and others have given me emotional support and encouragement. Overall though, I feel the love in every bit of it. I absolutely could not have made it here on my own. To date... I fundraised almost half the total expenses and with the incredible donation from my mom, my trip is almost completely paid for! And my brother completely surprised me by giving me a laptop that I will be able to use in order to remain in contact with all of you... he gave me the gift of communication and connectedness... and for that I am seriously grateful! In addition to financial resources, I have received acknowledgement from my work and they just published a full two page article about my involvement with Habitat and my commitment to helping others... this is the second article written about my involvement (the other was in the HFH Orange County newsletter). I just can't believe that my story is touching people all over Orange County and Long Beach... and I hope that it will inspire others. With India looming just a few days away... friends have rallied to spend time with me and help decrease some of my anxiety about traveling.

In short... from the bottom of my heart, I am blessed to be blessed by all of you. This moment will be in my memory forever as the year that I allowed others to help me... and became all the better for it. I love you all. i leave for India in two days (arrive there in 4 days) and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. No matter what though, I will enjoy seeing a new country, serve a needy family and get to know new friends... oh yeah... and have the pleasure of jetlag,Delhi Belly and lots of other fun "memorable" moments:) Here's to another wild ride... stay tuned!!! :)

(oh yeah... if you would like, you can click on the link on the right hand side that says "followers"... this will update you each time I post something new).

Let's meet the team!

It's official, I am leaving in just over one month and just submitted the final payment to Habitat. No backing out now! I am REALLY excited to head to India and can't wait to see how this trip will unfold. In the recent few weeks, the team leader has been sending out a lot of emails about the culture and the build site. I am getting a bit nervous about the way he communicates but am hoping that once in the country everything will work out fine.

This is going to be a smaller team than I am used to and I think that there can be some positives and negatives to that. There is only 11 people going (including the team leader) which is different from Thailand (14 people) and Ghana (12 people). The makeup of the team is also going to be pretty different... 7 guys and 4 girls (it's normally about 2/3 or more female)... does this mean that I can opt out of all the heavy lifting, digging and lugging bricks? Oh wait... that's all we do on a Habitat build! :)

Here's the team:
1. Ray- team leader, from London, owns his own business, has been on/led 11 habitat trips
2. Martin- our host in India, been a social worker for 20+years, worked with Habitat India for 5 years
3. Ava- I don't know who she is, she never submitted a bio
4. Amy- lives in Florida, works as a Sign Language interpreter
5. Clinton- 36yrs, lives in TN, works for University of Tennessee
6. Chinmoy- 36yrs, from India but lives in Bahrain, works as a business analyst at a bank
7. Jerry- 40yrs, lives in WI, Works as a senior database developer at a financial services firm
8. Liam- 19yrs, lives in England, works as a sports coach
9. MAtt- 28yrs, lives in Oregon,
10. Sheri- the most awesome teammember there is! 31yrs and rock as a social worker :)
11. Daniel- from SEattle, a retired police officer
12. Natasha- 33yrs, lives in Canada, works in the Canadian forces

So that's it! It should be one heck of a ride!!! Hold onto your hats! (or should I say sari's?) :)

YEA!

YEA! I just received my final donation which brought it up to $1800 in donations! You guys are amazing!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Almost there!

Good news! My visa came back on Friday and it's officially time to start looking at plane tickets! I was looking at them this weekend and couldn't believe how long the flights are! Maybe I should have looked into that before choosing India... just kidding! On the way there, I have to leave on Thursday in order to get there by Saturday!!!! And that's with only a 5 hour layover! On the way home, one of the flights has a 17HOUR LAYOVER in London! Yikes!!! On the flip side, maybe I could get out and do some sightseeing! :) I'm gunna wait and keep looking at all the flight options.

My final payment to Habitat is due on October 10th so if anyone is thinking about making a donation... please help a sista out before that date :) If you would like to donate in my name, please make sure to include my ID # which is 9309-9409 and the trip code (GV11303). Love you all and am completely floored by all of your generosity!

It's Visa time!

Hello all!!! It's official, I have just sent in my visa application... to the tune of $73 plus the required overnight FEDEX to AND from the place! Boo! My fingers are crossed and I am going to be buying my plane ticket when I get the Visa back. The team leader told us "make sure that you don't tell them that you are going with Habitat... just put that you are there on a tourist visa because otherwise it will take months to get it approved" but then he had us use Habitat India as our reference in the country!! To this he replied "I know, it's ridiculous but this is India... trust me, we do this all the time." How can a country that is so lax require me to send in copies of my birth certificate, a recent utility bill and entrust them with my passport?!?!? Keeping my fingers crossed!!!!: :)