Residual longing to go back...

Today I learned that one of our students we took to South Africa wants to go back (obviously) - and the founder is so graciously working out logistics so that perhaps once he graduates he can spend his summer, the next year or who knows how long abroad roaming the South African rural landscape - perhaps hunting for boreholes to be turned into working PlayPump water stations. I think if I had been introduced at the ripe age of 18 or 19 to such a rich and resounding cultural experience I would probably still be somewhere abroad. I say that now being more mature and resonating on a different spiritual level then I was at 18 or 19. At 18 and 19 I was consumed by partying and still working off the grief of losing my grandma at 16. My mom tried to encourage me to live and get educated in the Philippines after I had graduated - but I wasn't ready to be immersed into something so unfamiliar. I wish I would of pursued it now, but hindsight always reflects back something that could of been. I am grateful for my experiences and assume one day as I age that the opportunities will come to me and perhaps together with Jeff, my son, a friend or one of my sisters we can share in some humanitarian experience that reaches beyond our boundaries both logistically as well as spiritually.