Too much to do, too little time

Argh! The pile of belongings I'm taking to South America continues to grow. I have a big heap in the corner of my office. The stack of papers on my desk continues to grow as well... I've been burning the candle at both ends to get everything accomplished before my trip. Strawberry plant sales. Organic certification questions. Beef questions. More strawberry plant sales. Peru questions. My email inbox keeps getting new messages all the time- my poor blackberry can't keep up! Sleep is rare in my house (especially with the new baby)... the bags under my eyes are nearly as big as the duffel bag I'm taking on the trip!

My life has been consumed with helping the village of Huamani, a very small agricultural community in the foothills of the Andes, just outside of the city of Ica. My portion of our trip was to plan our service project, and indeed I've been planning. This village was hit hard by an earthquake in 2007, with many homes completely devastated. A group has formed to help rebuild these homes in an earthquake-proof fashion. Our class has come together and secured many donations to purchase materials for these homes. Later today, we'll be wiring money to Peru to purchase these materials, so they can be shipped well in advance of our arrival in Huamani next week. While we are in the village, we will roll up our sleeves and help out- this will be next Tuesday.

In typical over-achiever fashion, helping rebuild a village to me just isn't enough. I was able to get the contact information for the principal of the school as well, and our class has been out collecting school supplies for the children. I also love to play indoor soccer (at Big League Dreams) and have been soliciting donations of soccer balls as well. A member of our class, Josh, has a brother who is the women's soccer coach at Simpson University. Later today I'm going to drop by Simpson and pick up some old used balls of theirs and be able to take them with us to donate to the children.

If that wasn't enough, I heard that there was a woman in the village that is handicapped. Her wheelchair that she currently has is in very poor shape, and my contact down there asked if we could find one that be suitable for her. This quest started me down the path to Northern Rehab & Respritory on South Market street. I needed to find a chair that could be used off pavement (this village doesn't have any pavement at all!). They didn't have anything that would work, but did provide me of a contact who manufactures wheelchair wheels, Skyway, and guess what, they are located here in Redding. Small world! I drove up to the Mountain Lakes business park, found Skyway and introduced myself. Working with them, they directed me to contact a non-profit group down in Hollywood- Wheels for Humanity. Skyway donates a lot of wheels to this organization. I was set up with the president of the non-profit, and he has helped get a wheelchair constructed that fits this woman EXACTLY! One of my classmates in the LA area is going to pick it up later this week. How cool is that?

Writing on this blog isn't helping whittle down my to-do list... better get back to work!