“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”

regarding the Middle East and North Africa:

time to step up to the world's proverbial plate, Obama.

50th Anniversary, 50 Volunteers, 50 Countries!

I am VERY excited to be a part of a really cool PCV Project!

http://pcsnapshotsofservice.blogspot.com/

You can read more about it on the link but basically a journal will be traveling around the world, to the hands of 50 PCV's starting their service during 2011.  We will each have two chances to write in one of the two volumes and read the previously written stories.  Then hopefully we'll all get copies of it at the end!

AND my dear blog friend Jessica (future PCV Moldova) is on the same project!!

I have a really good feeling about this :)


On a totally separate note, please keep the Americans, Egyptians, and everyone else in unstable countries right now in your prayers.  I have two friends from college in Egypt right now, one of which has been one of my best friends since first year dorms (Tom).  His blog, with help from his girlfriend in the States, is being updated here: http://afewdaysabroad.wordpress.com/

He's safe and the other friend was actually interviewed on CNN on Tuesday: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/02/01/exp.ac.teacher.staying.in_egypt.cnn?iref=allsearch

It seems like the Americans in Cairo right now are finding a strong sense of purpose in carrying the messages of the Egyptian people to the US media.  They all seem to emphasize that any anti-American sentiment is not directed at individuals but at hypocritical foreign policies.  Let's all hope and pray for peace tomorrow.
2/3/2011: Able to talk to my friend Tom on gchat today since internet has been restored.  Apparently the danger to foreigners (especially those with cameras) has really increased over the last couple days, as you might imagine given the news about attacks on Anderson Cooper and other media.  News reports point to the pro-Mubarak protesters for the increase in anti-Americanism, as they see the media really taking a toll on the pro-Mubarak cause.  Tom was actually with another CNN crew that was attacked and has since withdrawn to safer areas.  He was able to post a lot about yesterday, if you click the blog link above.

Aspiration Statement

Just sent mine in, possibly a 1/2 day late (it's supposed to be 10 days after invitation is accepted).  It's been a crazy week with the East Coast snow, I got stuck in Denver traveling back from a work meeting in Las Vegas!

I'm sure this will bore some readers to tears but here it is anyways:

A: The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill, during your Peace Corps service.

My first priority in Peace Corps service will be to fully integrate into the community, so that I feel like I deeply know the locals and the locals deeply know me.  I see success in this goal as a necessary prerequisite to my second goal: to implement projects that prove to be self-sustaining in the community.  Specifically, I want to empower local youth and businesspeople with the skills and motivation to pursue their academic and professional goals, and to become leaders in their community through that process. 

If I truly want to empower others, I will need to let them take the steering wheel.  I have had significant successes in the past in empowering new leaders, but I will always need to remind myself that while something might get done faster if I do it by myself, we cannot build local capacity until my counterparts have those skills themselves.  I will draw on my past experiences of patient mentorship and development of protocols and written guides to bolster institutional capacity.  In addition, I have prided myself on my consensus- and participation-building skills in the past, and believe I can apply those skills to a new context in Peru.  While the aforementioned professional characteristics point towards “caution” or patience in a lot of cases, I also plan to utilize my action-oriented attitude towards community issues.  While local knowledge will provide much necessary guidance on my projects, I will work hard to show that conditions can change with the appropriate investment of time, effort, and commitment to new ideas.

Another ambition I have is to use some existing resources in Peru to spur local and potentially national change.  If Peace Corps find the work to be appropriate, I would like to eventually connect with el Instituto de Libertad y Democracía, which works to reduce bureaucratic barriers to entering the formal economy; doing so could have positive effects on the local level as small business owners try to legitimize their businesses.  Also, I would like to connect local youth with Instituto Invertir’s EmprendeAhora! Program, which awards training and funding to regional university students for their proposals for small business projects in their communities.  I was introduced to both of these organizations during my internship at CIPE, and hope that their work will prove relevant to my community’s developmental needs.

B:  Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.

In order to achieve my goals, I will need to be the “best version of myself” that I can be.  First, I will need to be open-minded, and to consistently listen before making recommendations.  The most effective solutions will be found through the input and investment of the community.  It will be important for me to recognize that my counterparts may have a better idea of what is achievable in their community and what is not, and that they may be shy to express that my idea is unrealistic.  I will need to look for quiet signs of disapproval and encourage my counterparts to provide alternate approaches.

Another strategy I plan to use is pin-pointing the right partners for specific projects.  The books The Tipping Point and Three Cups of Tea taught me a lot about the power of local partners, especially when they are “Connector,” “Salesman,” or “Maven” personalities that can profoundly influence the success of a project.  I hope to spend the first few months at my site getting to know the people deeply enough to understand their informal roles in the community, so I can find the best people to work on and market our projects.

C:  Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.

I anticipate that my 27 months in Peace Corps will involve a great deal of personal struggle, exasperated by frustrations with the local culture.  While I am generally a patient person with strangers and friends, living under the roof of a family other than my own may present difficult interpersonal moments.  For example, I may be uncomfortable with the health practices (boiling water without filtration, etc.) or the gender roles in the family and community.  I believe my most crucial strategy for adapting to my living and work situations will be maintaining a sense of humor.  If I imagine how strange and frustrating my habits and attitudes may be to the locals, I think I will be able to laugh at myself, break the tension, and regain perspective on the situation.  For cultural differences that I find offensive or unethical, it will be important for me to “choose my battles” wisely as I aim to maintain a position of trust and respect within the community.  Lastly, I will remind myself that I have expected and even welcomed these challenges as part of the difficult but rewarding Peace Corps experience.  I hope to take on cultural challenges bit by bit, day by day, so that I can focus on small achievements like learning to bathe and cook without reliable running water.

D: The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.

The improvements I saw in my Spanish comprehension during my five weeks in Spain were monumental.  I am confident that training will bring my language and comprehension skills up to speed, and hopefully to an even higher level in the local dialect and accent.  Armed with my language skills, I hope to gain confidence in “being myself” within the local context, so that I am prepared to settle into my site.  At the same time, I recognized that as I leave pre-service training, I will encounter new frustrations with my health, abilities and resources; I hope that training will equip me with some methods for maintaining resilience in the face of these challenges.

In terms of small business promotion, I hope to learn about best practices based on past projects in Peru, ideally on projects near my specific site.  I also hope to hear from past volunteers or other experts about the most important needs of Peruvian people so that I can appropriately prioritize my goals.

Another important topic for training will be the nuances of cultural practices, not only because I want to integrate more quickly into the community, but because I want to keep myself safe.  I want to leave training with good idea of what might offend community members, and how to best approach sensitive topics.  Most importantly, I hope that my training host family will help me learn how to cook!

E:  How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.

I applied to the Peace Corps because I am committed to a career in global development and I would not feel qualified to enter that field without spending significant time on the ground, integrated into a community in a developing country.  I want to come away with new ideas for solving the world’s developmental and social problems.  My unrealistic professional goal is that I want to be the next Muhammad Yunus; I want to develop a new approach as revolutionary as microfinance to helping the world’s poor through a blend of profit and social service, and I believe that I will find that idea during my time in Peace Corps.  I am currently considering an MBA (focused on Social Enterprise) after Peace Corps service, and I know that my 27 months in Peru will give me a very interesting perspective on the business world.

On a more practical level, I believe that completing Peace Corps service will make me a very resilient person, teach me a lot about myself, and show future employers that I can handle pretty much anything, even with limit resources.  One of the best quotes I have heard about the benefits of Peace Corps service came from a promotional video; a volunteer said something to the effect of “After walking into an African village by myself, trying to learn the local ways and conquer local problems, there is not much in the United States that I am intimidated by.”  I hope that I will complete Peace Corps service with a sense of purpose, specific ideas for achieving economic and social development, and the confidence to work towards those goals regardless of the obstacles thrown my way later in life.

Advice to Central/South America Nominees

I wanted to write a quick post as a word of advice/planning to current nominees to Central/South America.  I didn't start reading Peace Corps Journals until after I had a minor meltdown about the delay in my placement process, so you guys are already more on the ball than me... and this may be clear after reading lots of other nominees/invitees blogs, but if it helps with RAS or life-planning... it seems that there is currently a three month backlog in C/SA invitations, meaning many invites are being issued with departure dates that are about three months later than the nominee's expected timeframe.  I was nominated to late January/early February, and my invitation is to June 9th, which is more like 4 months "late."  From what I gather this is a pretty common story in our Placement Region.  And when I accepted my unofficial invitation over the phone, the Placement Officer told me they are pretty much full before June and that's the timeframe they are currently placing people for.  Other nominees/invitees please feel free to correct me or add your own experiences.  I just wanted to give some context to my invite, since I can imagine that many June nominees are thinking that my invitation means I am taking their spot or that their invitation might be coming soon too.  I had those feelings about February invites! I don't want to set up anybody for disappointment so yes, I guess I did sort of take your spot, but everyone's spots are being taken three months in advance!

I am really, really thankful that my invitation came the time it did and not a week later.  As was evident in my blog, I was near a breaking point.  If you are feeling "in crisis" too, I think the big question is whether you have other options right now where you would be just as happy as in Peace Corps.  Answers will vary depending on your current situation, future goals, etc.  For me, the answer was no- I was sure that Peace Corps was the only thing that would bring me fulfillment over the next two years.  For that reason, I was willing to wait another three months, even though it almost felt like a deal breaker when I first heard the news.

If you find out that you have to wait longer than expected, take a night to sleep on it and think about how much those few months will actually change your life plan.  I don't want to assume too much about other people's situations (especially financially since that's been a hard part for me), but I think in the grand scheme of things a few months is not that long.  It feels like an eternity while you are waiting, but try to take a bird's eye view of things!

I'm still rooting for everyone who is in Placement Limbo to get exciting news soon.  I'm still following "Applicants" in PCJ because I want to hear where you guys end up!

It's finally real.

I, .............  , am accepting my invitation to serve as a Small Business Promoter Peace Corps Volunteer in Peru, departing June 9, 2011.

I hereby certify that I have read the Volunteer Assignment Description, Online Welcome Book, and Core Expectations and agree to abide by the policies therein.

Thank you so much for this opportunity.  I could not be happier with my job assignment and location.  I would like to thank everyone at the CYD Placement Office for working so hard on behalf of future volunteers.  I know CYD is a department swamped with applications and highly qualified nominees, and it is clear that you all are dedicated to placing volunteers in the best assignments for both the individual and the country.  As a beneficiary of that dedication, thank you for your hard work on behalf of Peace Corps Volunteers.  I am honored to join the ranks of such an inspiring group of people!

The post I have been waiting to make!

I GOT MY UNOFFICIAL INVITATION!

It's really funny how timing works out.  I was an anxious mess these past two weeks, between my last contact with the Placement Office and studying for the GMAT.  I took the GMAT yesterday, scored a little lower than I wanted but still fine in the grand scheme of things, and thought to myself how funny it would be if Peace Corps called me while my phone was off and I was testing.

Murphy's Law.  I get back home, am casually browsing through my personal email, and after checking a few others first, see one from an unfamiliar name with the title "Checking In."  Turns out Joseph in Placement had been trying to reach me and had trouble with my voicemail and was only able to reach my mom at home!  I called him back as requested (okay, called him back four times) but sadly didn't get in touch with him.  Sent him an email letting him know that my voicemail was fixed or he could try my office number tomorrow (today).

So I got the call this morning!  I had learned my lesson about wishful thinking with Peace Corps, so assumed that he was just going to give me a timeframe in which they would be making a decision, or maybe a little more info on what dates/locations they were looking at.  But he said that they were ready to extend an unofficial placement to me...

SOUTH AMERICA - EARLY/MID JUNE  

COMMUNITY DEV'T WITH BUSINESS FOCUS

If I was happy with the placement (yes yes yes!!) then my official invitation packet would be coming in the mail next week, with more specific info about the country and assignment. 

I am elated.  From Peace Corps Wiki it looks like Peru is very likely since it is the only South American country currently issuing invites for June (staging June 9), but I want to keep my mind open the possibility that it's somewhere else.  In 2010 they sent a group to Paraguay on June 1...

So it looks like I am going to have an awkwardly timed return, around mid September, just in time to not enter an MBA program.  But overall I think that's fine, since maybe I can find a good job for 10/11 months to get myself back on my feet financially.  Plus, I am very excited about the small business focus of my placement, since that aligns even more directly with my career interests.

To the other nominees who are in this boat with me, I am 100% rooting for you to hear your placements soon!!  Jessica, Sherlie and others, maybe we will end up in the same country!!  If it helps in terms of planning at all, Joseph said that for C/SA they don't have much open earlier than June.

Can't wait to have more details next week :)

Keeping Myself Happy and Busy

...the two seem to always go together.  Thank you already to those who have commented on my last post.  Your words really mean a lot to me, and are a great reminder that this is not the time to crack!

I am so excited to think about what I will do with my free time after I am done with the GMAT on Thursday.  Since about October, I've had virtually no time for volunteering, working out, or relaxing.

I haven't "added" to my Peace Corps-relevant resume since this summer, when I was volunteering at the DC Scores soccer-writing camp before I got my current job.  I definitely feel guilty about that, but it's kind of hard to keep up my volunteering when I'm just struggling to make a living!  My job is semi-relevant to Peace Corps work, but that connection isn't readily apparent on paper.  But now, finally I can get back to what I love.

I just emailed a family friend who works in the DC Courts, since she works with child abuse and neglect cases.  I am really interested in volunteering with those kids and from past conversations it sounds like she might be able to find a place for me.  Hopefully that will come through!  Plus, now I might have some new info to share with my placement officer, whenever he calls!

Thanks again, fellow nominees :)