September 22nd, 2011
50 years ago today the Peace Corps Act was signed in to Congress meaning that today is the official anniversary of Peace Corps. Flash forward 50 years and here I sit in my room writing this early morning blog before I head off to PC Headquarters to meet my counterpart who I will be working with for the next 2 years, followed by being sworn in at the U.S. Embassy. Should be an exciting day, I will be sure to post pictures and most likely write another post tonight.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Blessing in Disguise
September
20th, 2011
Well we are in our last week of
training now; it is absolutely insane how quickly it went by. It seems like
just a short while ago I was getting off the plane in Washington ready to
embark on this journey. Looking back on the journey so far, I realize just how
much I have actually learned so far and how much that I have accomplished. I
was successfully learned how to maneuver around Honduras safely as well as
learned about the culture and how to adapt to it. I have enhanced my learning
about youth development and put my previous knowledge into a framework on
international development which I will now be able to use to help the people of
my site out. I have learned to eat vegetables, and for that matter I have learned
to eat whatever is given to me on a plate even if I am not sure what it is. I
have also learned how to speak a new language, while I am not a master at it
yet by any means I know enough to get around and be able to express myself well
enough to survive. I also know how to get through normal everyday Honduran
live, including flushing the toilet with a bucket, taking a bath with a bucket,
washing your clothes with a bucket, lots of things that have to do with buckets
and water… While I have learned what seems to be a mountain of information so
far I have no doubt in my mind that I will continue to learn throughout my
entire experience and continue to grow as a person as well. Besides learning
all of this new information I have also met some amazing people and became
great friends with many of them. These friendships are going to help me through
the tough times that I will no doubt encounter throughout these next two years and
for them I am very grateful. I believe that we had such a great training group
and I know that we are all going to make a difference in each and every one of
our sites.
With training being over, a very
exciting, and new reality is at our hands. No longer will we be sheltered
trainees surrounded by people who can speak English and explain the culture to
us. We will venture out into the real world without anyone there to hold our
hands, it will be up to us to cultivate friendships and create working
relationships as well. It will be our sole responsibility and we all know that,
while we all know that it will be hard at the same time we are all excited to
have this opportunity. We know that there will be walls placed in our way but
like Randy Pausch once said, “walls are put in your way to show how much you
want something.” I am certain that one of the walls that I will encounter along
the way is my language barrier and this is something that has worried me a
little bit for the past few weeks, that was until I was reading “The Five
People You Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Album and came across the following quote: “ʻYour
voice will come. We all go through the same thing. You cannot talk when you
first arrive.’ He smiled. ‘It helps you listen’” With that simple quote I
realized that my limited Spanish speaking is really a blessing in disguise and I
now will have the opportunity to simply listen to the people and hear what they
have to say (I can understand better than I can speak at this point). With this
information I will be able to build a friendship with the people, which is the
most important part if I want to work with them. So while I realize that I
there are still many challenges up ahead for me to overcome, it feels good to
have finished this “three month job interview” and on Thursday I will finally
be able to call myself a PCV, and then the real fun starts.
P.S. more pictures here:
P.S. more pictures here:
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