Camp Sherman woman heading for India

Well-known Camp Sherman master quilter Andrea Balosky will be heading for language school in Darjeeling, India, in March.

First she plans a visit with her mother in Oahu, Hawaii, where she was born and raised; then she is on to India to start the nine-month Tibetan language program.

To help finance her trip, Andrea recently held a sale of many of her possessions. A weekend sale in Sisters attracted a large number of friends and well-wishers.

"I want to thank all the people who came to my sale and the help they gave me," said Balosky. "I am a fiercely independent woman but it was very nice to have so many friends help, particularly the women who helped package my quilting materials and move my goods from Camp Sherman to Sisters for the sale. I am grateful for so many wonderful friends."

In her varied life, Andrea has been a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Malaysia and the Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal). She also was a participant at a United Nations meeting held in Katmandu in 1977.

A quilter since 1964, Balosky has authored a quilting classic, "Transitions: Unlocking the Creative Quilter Within" (That Patchwork Place, 1996), a book that has become a must-read for those generally interested in the creative spirit. Her quilts have been displayed nationwide.

More recently, Andrea has been a postal service employee in Sisters and Camp Sherman Post Offices.

She is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and hopes to become more proficient in reading books in that religion with her language studies.

She attended the Dalai Lama's recent Portland visit and hopes to visit shrines and holy places while in India -- perhaps again seeing the Dalai Lama, who is in exile after the Chinese invasion of Tibet.