Welcome: Taking the Plunge!

Friends and Family: I'm a lucky woman! You are part of why I feel that way. More evidence? I've been granted an anti-burnout 12 week leave of absence from my job at Watkinson School, which I asked for last March. Since Thanksgiving, I've been catching up on sleep, reading for pleasure, sewing, and generally restoring myself. On January 2, I embark on a journey I've chosen to spark the middle weeks of my leave. I'm headed to Phimai, Thailand, to participate in an archaeological dig as a volunteer for two weeks, through Earthwatch.org. Then I'll have a few days for sight seeing in Bangkok before I relocate to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on January 21.

I've never been to Thailand--that part is utterly new to me--but Phnom Penh is somewhat familiar, since I've traveled each of the three past summers to Cambodia, as one of the chaperones for groups of Watkinson students doing learning through service work. In PP I'll be helping with preliminary planning for a big arts festival in the summer of 2010, sponsored by Cambodia Living Arts, one of the organizations we work with when we're in Cambodia. Check them out at cambodialivingarts.org.

For more information on the dig--and pictures--go to Earthwatch "Origins of Angkor" or try this link: http://www.otago.ac.nz/Anthropology/Angkor. This dig is a very productive site where more than 650 individual gravesites have been uncovered, spanning over 4,000 years.

I fly home on February 3. Between now and then, I hope to post intermittent entries to this blog, perhaps with pictures. My experience in SE Asia suggests that my access to the internet will be spotty, but I'll do my best. I hope you'll comment back to the blog, to help me celebrate my connection to you while I'm on the other side of the planet. If you want to send me a more private message than commenting on the blog, use this email: k_bovard@yahoo.com. My Watkinson email is hard to access from SE Asia.

As I create this blog, on the eve of a New Year, I wish fulfilling adventures--inner and outer--to all of us, and meaningful work in each of our lives. Thank you for your companionship on my journey! May the future unfold in such a way that I can hear you tell me of your paths: reciprocation is a value I hold dear.