Disclaimer: The following is an email I sent to friends and family in September 2013, preserved here for posterity.

Subj: So It Begins

On Tuesday I'm leaving for Africa. 

I thought you might want to know. 

You are on a list of about 50 friends I would like to keep in touch with.  I'll be writing these little synopses occasionally (I'm thinking every month, but who knows) to share my adventures.  Maybe I'll convince you to quit whatever it is you're doing and travel for a year. Or maybe it'll be horrible.  I don't know. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  In case you haven't heard somehow, I'm traveling around the world and volunteering on organic farms (through a program called Wwoof).  They give me food and a bed, and I work for them.  I'm doing 1 country per month for an entire year.  At each farm, I will be staying with the family.  We will share every meal, many recipes, some great stories, and our unique cultures.

I've been planning non-stop for the last month to make everything work and I've had to lie*, cheat**, and steal*** to get here, but now it is all real.  I have the tickets and vaccinations. 

I've purchased a Round-The-World plane ticket, which is a cheaper way to fly over all the major oceans and 5 continents.  That should basically be my only purchase this year, besides restocking on deodorant and toothpaste.

I'm not really sure why I'm doing this.  I guess I'm just following advice.  It's always the first thing in every "Things I wish I Did Sooner" and "Best Life Advice" list, and every intelligent person from David Foster Wallace to Mark Twain to Dad says travel is essential.  

So I guess I decided to listen to them.

Also, the day will come when I will have rent/mortgage, a job, family, debt, furniture, appliances, and responsibilities . . . but today is not that day.

Everyone agrees this is something that should be done, and it is obvious that now is the time to do it.  So in the words of Art Williams, I'm doing it. 

So, where am I going?

After a month of planning, I have the perfect Itinerary.

• Start in South Africa
• Oct 20 fly to Nepal to catch Diwali
• Nov 20 fly to Malaysia
• Dec 20 fly to Thailand for Christmas and (American) New Year
• Jan 21 fly to Japan
• Feb 19 fly to Sydney for my Birthday
• Mar 20 fly to New Zealand
• Apr 20 fly to Chile (mainland)
• May 20 fly to Easter Island (technically also Chile)
• June 20 fly to Buenos Aires then promptly take a bus to Rio in Brazil for the WORLD CUP
• July 20 take a bus back to Buenos Aires and spend a month there
• Aug 20 fly to Dominican Republic
• Sep 20 fly to BWI

Will our paths cross? Come visit me!

Know somebody in any of these countries? Where? Other than South Africa, none of the farms are decided on yet, so I can pick one that's close to your Aunt/roommate/pen-pal/person-with-the-same-name-as-you-on-Facebook.  There's nothing cooler than being picked up for the weekend and shown some local awesomeness.

Anyways, I hope this email isn't too long and let me know what you think!  I look forward to writing the next installment from my South African pomegranate grove!

Keep in Touch,

Colin

* Lie: "No mom, they call it Japanese Encephalitis because it was discovered by a Japanese doctor, it's nowhere near Japan"

** Cheat: The prices for round-the-world tickets are based on your citizenship, which is based on what country you're flying out from.  There are complicated international deals that make Americans pay out the nose, while South Africans get a great deal.  To book this ticket starting in South Africa over the phone they needed a credit card with a South African address, or for me to be in SA.  Nope.  Luckily their website isn't so picky, so I got charged the 44000 Rand ($4400 USD) on my Capital One card and sighed heavily because that is less than half of the $8900 USD they would have charged if I went to the same places, but started in BWI. So how much does it cost to travel the world for a year?  About 5k.  Can you afford it?

*** Steal: To start things off, I had to join the South African Wwoof page.  This means you pay some small fee ($25) and they send you the contact information for all of the host farms, who you then email and make arrangements with.  This should be done online with a credit card, but that would be too easy.  The volunteer who runs the South African Wwoof (mostly, every country's Wwoof is run independently, with the ironic exception of "Wwoof Independents" which is a conglomerate of about 40 smaller countries all run together) does not take online payments, or Paypal.  He asks for a wire transfer.  That costs $45 flat fee.  To send $25. I emailed him and sent him a facebook message a week ago asking if I could use Western Union or Moneygram (only a $5 fee) and . . . he didn't respond.  Still hasn't.  The only way to get to a farm is to email them directly and organize transportation and lodging personally using the contact information sent to you when you pay.  Without this vital list of emails and descriptions, I would have a flight to South Africa with nowhere to go upon arrival.  So how did I find a farm in South Africa?  Well . . . his members page was made by a 12-year-old and simply viewing the page source reveals that the password screen doesn't protect the content behind it.  I sifted through the html and clicked on a promising link titled "/Hosts_2013-3.pdf" and voila!  So I guess I stole the first Wwoof list, but I had no choice and I really am still trying to pay him!

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."

If you want to stop getting these, or there's somebody who totally should be getting them, but isn't, please don't hesitate to email me.  I promise I won't mind.