My name is Michael Barrett. I am a 29 year old Aussie who is from a small surfing town by the name of Torquay. I have been travelling through Europe, Asia, Nth America, Sth America, Nth Africa and Australasia for the last 7 years. My profession is in cabinet making but I have worked in many different areas whilst on my travels. My last job before "Journey Down The Mississippi" was as an English teacher in the country Colombia, a country which has had a huge effect on my life. My passions lie in our beautiful nature, oceans, cultures of the world, my amazing family and my faith as a Christian.
Why The Mississippi And Why Colombia
The "Journey Down The Mississippi" was born from a string of events, to be honest, out of my control. It all started whilst I was living in Colombia. I lived in Bogota, Colombia for a year and a half. There I was an English teacher. It was July 2010 when myself, my brother and my fiance went to an extremerly poor neighborhood in Bogota called "Alto de Cazuca". We had the opportunity to spend the day with the children of the local schools. Here we offered our time and some gifts and also built a mural with them. We met some amazing people, but especially the children. As usual when we departed, everyone was talking excitedly and enthusiastically about the ideas they had to help these kids at the school, but unfortunately, the same thing happened that usually does, the life that we were living before we met these kids in "Alto de Cazuca" consumes us again and we go on with our lives. This time, for me, I do not want this to be the case.
While living in England in the year of 2008, I worked with a company called Active Assistance. I was a personal carer for people with terrible spinal injuries who were wheelchair bound. One man I cared for changed my life. His name was David Martin. David was a Quadriplegic after a terrible accident he had while in South Africa. He had this accident after he had just completed 7 full marathons in 7 days through the country of South Africa, you see David was a fantastic athlete who relished the challenge of physical endurance. The one test he told me of that blew me away the most was his story about when he and his three good friends rowed a rowing boat across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Antigua in 40 days, unassisted. After hearing this story I was hooked. I have been constantly searching for a physical and spiritual test for myself. In 2010, my fiance Cami and I had been talking about making the move to China to continue teaching. From this I came up with the idea to attempt to walk the length of The Great Wall of China. After months of begging, pleading and mountains of paperwork that went no where, I was to find out that this was to be impossible, as they would not grant me a visa. This was a tough time as months and months of planning had gone into this and I felt that I had let a lot of people down. But I was not going to let a minor bureaucratic bump get in the way of this dream I had. From there... the "Journey Down The Mississippi" was born.
Here I have a blessing to combine two of my dreams, one to attempt a huge physical challenge of trekking and exploring one of the largest rivers on our planet, the other is to help some great, inspiring people from Colombia to gain acsess to some of the basic tools in life that we take for granted everyday. I am so lucky to have this stage in my life, it is a gift!
