The blogging adventure will continue again once I have moved to Hereford, end September 2022: I think I lost my compass

I think I lost my compass and have been sleepwalking into heaven knows what!

Sorry but this is one of those navel gazing posts ~ yes, you get the good, the bad and the ugly! Today I might need your advice!

It’s insidious, the way you can slowly, develop “drift”, it is almost unnoticeable until one day you wake up and say “hey, how come I got here” especially if that is accompanied by a strong feeling that “here” is not where you feel you should be! I never wanted a direct route from A to preferring to tack like a yacht and believing that it is better to travel than to arrive. I feel thatI have come to a stop here in Antigua.

When I set out last October on my great adventure, I had picked Guatemala as a safe place to start.

Maybe too safe and maybe too secure.

What happened to knowmadicmike? Especially the nomad bit!

Six-and-a-bit months later, I live in a nice house, I have a burgeoning relationship, I am comfortable and l feel lost! Well not exactly lost, but I left the UK to have an adventure, involving travel, giving something back”, pushing myself, enjoying myself and new experiences ….. and I feel that what I have got is the same old, same old except I am in a different country. I listen to radio 4, Antigua is toitally geared to western tourists- Macdonalds, Burger King, Subway, DominoesPizza, Pops IceCream, delis full of expensive western products ................... all TOO comfortable!

Q: Is this what I signed up for?

A: I don’t think so!

If I were back in the UK I would have had long walks with Martin, or long discussions over dinner with you, talking through my doubts and fears. Here, I have just myself to talk to and sometimes I end up going round in circles. And thatis not the same as a circular walk round the reservoir back in Brum!

How have I ended up renting a house that takes best part of 70% of my pension and consequently having to watch every quetzal I spend, and ifI am honest I think I fell into a relationship in order to …….. fill a void? ? fill time? Have an interest? None of which seems or feels like the right answer! (even though I had genuine feelings for him, and he for me) But, too many pipe-dreams ...... better to call a halt before I do yet more damage to both him and me!

And why would I really want to set up and run an NGO involving stress, frustration and a whole heap of administration. I know that my entrepreneurial spirit runs away with me, but I also have to project forward and think about the fellow on my other shoulder who hates admin, hates routine and gets bored! But getting the idea and working on it certainly got my entrepreneurial and creative juices flowing ……. And I like that!

The “knowmadic” life was supposed to be just that, if I get bored, I move on, I stay for as long as I feel useful and then on to the next opportunity. I have however learned that working with poor children has enormous rewards and I love it!

I return to the UK for a vacation in 3 months time and will have completed 10 months in Guatemala. I hope that by August, I know what I shall be doing in September.

I am pretty much taken with Latin America and want to return to that, so I also have to reluctantly say no I to India. (I have a small 6 week project lined up in Kolkatta with the Chamber Orchestra and would be in India for about 2 months in total) the trip is in the wrong direction and maybe it is a distraction? Also it will cost about £1.5K. Which is my airfare back to Latin America and 1 years health insurance!

The Andes in Ecuador

I think it is time to find that compass and set it in a new direction. I am currently looking at some very different options:


Andean School

Working in an experimental school in the high Andean mountains of Ecuador, teaching English, Music Arts and Crafts. The town is 120 miles south west of Quito the capital. This for a year. I fancy the high Andean mountains, the roof of the world (southern hemisphere) …….
Possibly doing a similar things in the Ecuadorian Rain Forest with a “tribe”, this for 3 months. This really is a non starter now ~ but later?
Working in a project for displaced children in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. 3 – 6 months. But it is in a city …..

Or anyone of many similar of projects with similar aims and objectives stretching from Mexico to Chile!

The Amazonian Tribe is for real!

And that isn't tea!

Part of my selection criteria is/well be ( in no particular order):

Projects are on the basis of accommodation in return for voluntary work. No more paying rent.
Offering an opportunity to work with children for more than just a couple of hours a day.
Being part of a very different community ~ more grass roots, more earth centred, more traditional
Being somewhere where the opportunity to use English is limited. (Except when teaching)
Limited communications ~ less reliance on the internet?
A brave new world (for me).
An established project, but not necessarily financially comfortable!

My thinking in part is that if I can work in return for accommodation, then I have a little more money to use either for “treats” or to use for the benefit of the host organisation. Buying the materials for classes etc.

The Salasaca Indians of the Ecuadorean Andes

Salasacan EasterProcession!

Oh yes, I also plan to use my network in Latin America from my Chamber days and from my Eurochambres Academies to see if I might also do a little “informal” consultancy helping small rural businesses improve or find some project that may be a little more off the beaten track.

Now of course, a change of “tack” will involve some endings, but I am wondering whether new beginnings will outweigh the sweet sorrows of parting? (to completely misunderstand the Bard!)

I have to say I am pretty taken with the idea of living on the roof of the world! The Andean school is at 2709 m / 8891 ft and the "local" mountains rise to over 20,000 feet!

And it would simply be a matter of swapping Inca for Maya!

Important bit coming up >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>