If not now, when?

I've thought about writing a blog before now but have never progressed any further than the thought. What would I write about? Who would care? Why bother? 

Well that was then and this is now. This last month has shown me that if you want something hard enough anything is possible.

So welcome to my blog. The fact that I've created this blog means that I have now done something else that up to now I have  only thought about.

Over the next few weeks I am going to use this blog to record my upcoming adventure. Five weeks ago today myself and my sister signed up as last minute volunteers for Haven's Build It Week in Haiti starting October 30th. 

Haven was founded towards the end of 2008 and it's mission is to build strong and sustainable communities, through the provisions of adequate shelter and the implementation of practical training courses, capacity building programmes and income generation projects. The shelter programmes run throughout the year however twice a year, in April and October Haven's Haitian workforce is joined on site by a team of volunteers who take part in an intensive Build It Week. 

Like a lot of people, the idea of volunteering had crossed my mind one or two times before but up to now I have always been able to come up with plenty of excuses as to why signing up would not be a good idea. On September 6th something changed. 

That night it was raining and very clammy out and it took us quite a while to find the building where the presentation was being held. The form wasn't great and only for the fact that I had promised my sister I would go along with her to the presentation I would have been at home, in my usual position, sprawled across the sofa.

But I had promised Mary so we dragged ourselves along and listened to what they had to say. I remember thinking to myself as we signed in that I hoped these people knew that I was only along for support and that I was not signing up. Little did I know.

As I listened to the presentation something clicked. They needed people and not just skilled people. Did I really have a good enough excuse as to why I couldn't help? 

As we spoke with some of the people afterwards who had volunteered on previous Build It Weeks more and more of my excuses faded away. Excuses like...I don't have the necessary skills...How would I raise the money (€4,500 per volunteer) in time... and the old reliable...maybe when I lose some weight...

Instead this voice in my head was asking me...if not now, when? I could see from Mary that she felt the same way. So that was it. It was decided. On the way back to the car we siked each other up. To be honest I think if we had been on our own we would not have gone ahead with it. But we weren't on our own and on the way home that night anything was possible.

The next day, to cement our decisions, we submitted our applications and I got my first set of jabs.