Greetings!

Hello!  This is me, Kerry, and this is my blog:  Karma and Kerry.  This blog is all about a trip I get to take this summer to India.

Let me begin by explaining why I named the blog Karma and Kerry.  Webster's dictionary defines Karma as "the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate reincarnation and to determine the nature of the person's next existence."

I may not be Hindu or Buddhist, but I do believe in a force generated by actions.  In fact, I believe it was this force that brought me to my current predicament.  In short, I believe it is Karma that takes me to India this summer.

You see, I love to travel, but I am a true American when it comes amenities.  I love driving everywhere I need to go, I love having all sorts of resources at my fingertips, and perhaps most of all...I love air conditioning.  India is not known for any of these things, so it does not seem that it would be my choice in travel destinations.  So, how did it come to pass that I would be spending the entire month of July in India?

The answer to this question includes a series of events that span quite a large amount of time.  Don't worry; I will spare you most of the details, but I do have to start by giving you some background about myself.  In order to make things as quick and easy as possible for all you readers, I have summarized everything for you below:

• I am a teacher in Texas.  I teach AP Environmental Science to 11th and 12th graders.  
• The district that I work for recently developed a partnership with a local University to create a course for teachers called "Global Education Leadership."  I was asked to take the course.
• An employee of the Dallas World Affairs Council was also in this course, and she announced several opportunities for travel.  Our Global liaison for the district (a course developer) then sent out an e-mail with the link to the application.
• Knowing that I need/want more global experiences, and knowing that India is a case study in almost every area of Environmental Science curriculum, I clicked on the link just to see what the trip entailed.  However, I must say that I was hesitant because I have always heard about the pollution, disease, and poverty in India.  Did I really want to spend 30 days in a developing country exposed to those things?  I didn't know, but I did notice several things that made the odds of being accepted rather low.
• The application required rec letters (and you never really know how those will turn out).
• Fulbright had not yet approved the grant, so the trip might not happen.
• There is an interview process with several people, which means that many will apply and several won't make the cut.
• Therefore...I applied thinking it would never become a reality.  I felt safe in taking this risk applying to a place that in my mind is categorized as scary.  So, on a whim I did it.
• I went through the process, and got accepted.

Why did I tell you all of these things?  Well, I guess that's because I still don't know how I feel about traveling to India.  It is still a scary place in my mind, and I am still apprehensive about the whole thing.  However, I also know that I believe in what this Fulbright trip is doing, and it appears that an unseen force has guided actions to get here.  I get it, Karma wants this to happen.  It seems that Karma and Kerry are intertwined.

I hope you continue to join me throughout this journey to see where Karma takes me.  I don't actually leave until June 30th, but I will be posting more about the trip before then.  So, stay tuned...