The Next Step Is a Doozie

(This is a reprint of a mass email, so sorry if you're reading this twice)

So, I've consulted a number of you on your thoughts regarding some decisions I've had to make about my recent and distant future and to some exclaimation or another, I've come to a conclusion. I'm sure some of you will be disspointed and some will be elated, but I've mulled over all the advice, attempted to pray about the decision, and come to a decent conclusion while I was interviewing for medical school in San Francisco last week. I had a great time there (which I'll probably write about in a later blog), appreciated the school, loved the staff, and when they offered me a decent chance to enroll in the upcomming year of school or to accept an offer for next year, I choose to wait one year, which pushes me back to the class of 2011. This also opens up the opportunity to take the offer made by Invisible Children and spend the next year in Uganda. So, I'm off. I'll be leaving in August.

For those of you who have no idea what offer I'm talking about, after traveling around the country for several months raising awareness about the crisis in northern Uganda, I've become overwhelmed (or possibly just whelmed, as I tried to explain to everyone at the Global Night Commute) by the possibilities of all that can be done there. (If for some reason, I haven't explained all this to you, please check out www.invisiblechildren.com.) As awareness grows and even as opponents begin to discuss peace once again, this time on the ground in the Sudan, the urgency to act strikes me as great. I have the chance now to go into the country and establish something. As the movement spreads across this country through continued grassroots efforts and the appearance of the feature length film, and as the possibility for peace grows over there, a large contigent of the youth here will want to have connections over there. Some will want to go for themselves, others will want to establish real relationships with people and organizations to enact the most benifit they can. I have been offered the chance to go to Uganda and try to create the program that will build those opportunities and those relationships through the Invisible Children organization.

I have alot of ideas of what this could look like and fears that I want to prevent. Hopefully, in the year that I have, I will be able to help others there and work with Ugandan organizations to create a viable, productive reality out of all of this. And, of course, it promises to be an amazing time as well. I will miss so many of you, but I will try to keep in contact as I can through the wonders of the information superhighway, as I have tried in the past. There will always be this account, also the MySpace account, and also a new blog for those of you who don't have MySpace at www.ckargel.blogger.com. Throughout these mechanisms, hopefully I can share the adventure with everyone and maintain what relationships I've built already.

Now, if you're in for even more involvement in the fun, while I have some means, and Invisible Children will be supplying everything I need in country, I will still require some small support to get me to Uganda and such. Please understand, that whatever I do not raise will be made up by the organization, but as they are supported by donations, it will come from that resource and go to me instead of other programs aimed at assisting the children of Uganda. If you can help by any means, I would greatly appreciate whatever you can offer. You can send whatever support that can be mustered to my sister's address, where most everything pertaining to me ends up these days, at:
1964 E Intrepid Ave
Mesa, AZ, 85204.

Thank you all so much for the support I've recieved so far on my journeys. I will most likely be in San Diego for a month yet and hopefully can see some of you before I leave. Please respond as you can, and I'll try to do the same.