Thursday, March 21, 2013
I Put the R in RPCV
 |
| Host Family in Corinto |
 |
| Amigas Bonitas en la Playa |
 |
| Almost home! |
 |
| Ringing the Bell! |
 |
| Hairy hair hair |
 |
| Alyssa and I celebrating/destressing with seafood paella! |
 |
| Rio San Juan: 100% Nica! |
Monday, March 11, 2013
Xiomara
Xiomara is my Nicaraguan counterpart. As a Peace Corps volunteer, we are assigned a Nicaraguan counterpart to work with and to support us adjusting to Nica culture etc... Xiomara works for the Ministry of Health and as a Volunteer Coordinator for the non-profit Youth Footprints Association. Some PCVs are assigned couterparts who barely have time to work with them or who do not understand the objectives of Peace Corps or just are not passionate about their work. I got extremely lucky by being placed in Corinto with Xiomara. She is one of the most passionate, dedicated, caring women I have ever met. Some people do their job just for the money. Xiomara is most definitely not one of those people. She cares so much about the youth of Corinto, so much so that she gets paid almost nothing and she still works 10-20 hours extra a week without getting paid extra. This past Friday I threw her a surprise "We Love You Xiomara" party, disguised as my going away party. Past volunteers sent in videos describing their time working with her and their general impression of Xiomara. They sent in photos of all the work Xiomara has done over the past 8 years. I put on a presentation for Xiomara and she had NO IDEA! It was such a huge success. She said some of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me, which left both her and me in tears. I've been thinking a lot about my future recently since I am finishing up this chapter in my life and I honestly cannot imagine my life without Xiomara and my other Corinto friends in it. People ask me if I will come back to visit Nicaragua and my answer is always YES! Of course! I do not know when I'll be back or for how long, but I do know that Xiomara and all of the amazing people I have worked with and become friends with in Corinto, have changed my life. I will never forget any of you and will most definitely be back to visit.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Thinking About the Future
Ah the big question everyone is asking me right now...what's next? That is a great question. I have a rough idea of what I would like to do, but no details yet. Plan for home- grad school (Master's in Public Health with a concentration in Urban and Immigrant Health-still waiting to hear back from Northeastern University, Boston, MA and SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY) and a great job that I love (honestly...who knows where I'll be working. I need to wait to hear back from schools to know where to apply).
People here always ask me if my volunteer-ship with Peace Corps helps me when I get home. It does! As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) I have non-competitive eligibility for government jobs. That means that my application automatically goes to the top of the pile. It does not mean that I will necessarily get the job; I still have to be qualified, but it does make things a lot easier. For graduate school there is a Fellowship program with grad programs all over the US. They offer scholarships, housing and a fellowship placement in a local organization connected to whatever you are studying. I looked into all of the fellowship programs offered and for me, nothing caught my eye.
So really my plans for the future are on hold while I await the decisions of Northeastern and SUNY. Also in thinking of future plans, I am a bit worried about reverse culture shock when I get home. After two years of being here, I've really become accustomed to the culture here and the general way of life. People talk about having a tough time readjusting to US life and catching up to where friends and family are now. I know I have an amazing group of people at home, so I'm not too worried about that. Hopefully I can find a job that will allow me to arrive 10-15 minutes late!
So I'll focus on short term plans until the long term plans can be figured out. Here's what my last month in Nicaragua looks like:
Thursday March 7- Art Fair with Asociacion Huellas Juveniles
Friday March 8- International Women's Day!! and my going away party!
Saturday March 9- Lindsey's going away party-pool party style
Sunday March 10- lunch with Texas Rotary Club and Chinandega Rotary Club donors. ALSO Nelsons going away and birthday party
Monday March 11-Friday March 15- last week in Corinto!
Friday March 15-Sunday March 17- going away party with Chinandega PCVs
Sunday March 17- Tony's going away party
Tuesday March 19- RING THE BELL=OFFICIAL END OF PEACE CORPS SERVICE!!
Tues March 19-Fri March 22- Chill with Host family in Masatepe
March 22-March 24- Leon
Sunday March 24- Emma's BIRTHDAY! HAPPY 21st! Head to the Atlantic Coast
March 24- beginning of April- Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, kayaking the Rio San Juan and saying goodbye to Nica.
April 9-I'm HOME!
People here always ask me if my volunteer-ship with Peace Corps helps me when I get home. It does! As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) I have non-competitive eligibility for government jobs. That means that my application automatically goes to the top of the pile. It does not mean that I will necessarily get the job; I still have to be qualified, but it does make things a lot easier. For graduate school there is a Fellowship program with grad programs all over the US. They offer scholarships, housing and a fellowship placement in a local organization connected to whatever you are studying. I looked into all of the fellowship programs offered and for me, nothing caught my eye.
So really my plans for the future are on hold while I await the decisions of Northeastern and SUNY. Also in thinking of future plans, I am a bit worried about reverse culture shock when I get home. After two years of being here, I've really become accustomed to the culture here and the general way of life. People talk about having a tough time readjusting to US life and catching up to where friends and family are now. I know I have an amazing group of people at home, so I'm not too worried about that. Hopefully I can find a job that will allow me to arrive 10-15 minutes late!
So I'll focus on short term plans until the long term plans can be figured out. Here's what my last month in Nicaragua looks like:
Thursday March 7- Art Fair with Asociacion Huellas Juveniles
Friday March 8- International Women's Day!! and my going away party!
Saturday March 9- Lindsey's going away party-pool party style
Sunday March 10- lunch with Texas Rotary Club and Chinandega Rotary Club donors. ALSO Nelsons going away and birthday party
Monday March 11-Friday March 15- last week in Corinto!
Friday March 15-Sunday March 17- going away party with Chinandega PCVs
Sunday March 17- Tony's going away party
Tuesday March 19- RING THE BELL=OFFICIAL END OF PEACE CORPS SERVICE!!
Tues March 19-Fri March 22- Chill with Host family in Masatepe
March 22-March 24- Leon
Sunday March 24- Emma's BIRTHDAY! HAPPY 21st! Head to the Atlantic Coast
March 24- beginning of April- Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, kayaking the Rio San Juan and saying goodbye to Nica.
April 9-I'm HOME!
What I Would Change...
Honestly there is not a lot I would change about my service. I was extremely lucky in the fact that I got placed with a fantastic counterpart. I'm happy with how I spent my 2 years. Here are the few things I would change if I could:
1. I tried to work with the local sex worker group, the Girasoles (the Sunflowers), but had some trouble. The idea of my former sitemate, John, was to start up a community bank with the group. Each month the group would meet, would deposit whatever the minimum deposit had been decided by the group (usually 100 cordobas). Each month the community pot grows, allowing members to take out small loans. The idea is that the loans can be used to start up your own business. With a very low interest rate and the pressure of the money belonging to the group, members usually pay back the loan fairly quickly. At the end of the year, each member receives whatever they put into the bank and a portion of the interest collected from the loans. We set up meetings but usually no one showed up. This was at the beginning of my service when I was learning how to work with different groups of people with different lifestyles. With the Girasoles, since they were working all night long, it did not make sense to expect everyone to be there for a 9 AM meeting. I learned to schedule meetings and health fairs for the afternoon, at a place where they felt safe and arrange reunions around their busiest times. I teamed up with the Ministry of Health and with a local bar-owner and we put on a couple successful health fairs focusing on PAP exams, self breast exams and condom usage. If I could go back in time, I would have liked to dedicate a bit less time on the youth soup kitchen and a bit more time working with and helping to organize better the local Girasoles group.
2. I lived with a really amazing host family here in site for the first 4 ish months. I decided to move out because I wanted to experience living in Nicaragua on my own; what it was like to pay bills on my own, cook for myself etc... I'm glad I did that. But I should have gone back to visit them more often. With such a passionate counterpart, I worked A LOT. Many weeks we worked 60 hours, putting on events at night and working the regular soup kitchen schedule during the day. Most nights I got back to my house exhausted, happy and very content with the work we had done, but tired, so I did not visit. We're still close and I will see them this Friday at my going away party, but I wish I had gone to hang out at their house more often.
At the moment these are the only two things I can think of that I may have changed. I can definitely look back and know that I really do not have regrets. Don't get me wrong, it has been a rollercoaster of emotions, sometimes changing 5 times in one day. But for Peace Corps, that's normal!
1. I tried to work with the local sex worker group, the Girasoles (the Sunflowers), but had some trouble. The idea of my former sitemate, John, was to start up a community bank with the group. Each month the group would meet, would deposit whatever the minimum deposit had been decided by the group (usually 100 cordobas). Each month the community pot grows, allowing members to take out small loans. The idea is that the loans can be used to start up your own business. With a very low interest rate and the pressure of the money belonging to the group, members usually pay back the loan fairly quickly. At the end of the year, each member receives whatever they put into the bank and a portion of the interest collected from the loans. We set up meetings but usually no one showed up. This was at the beginning of my service when I was learning how to work with different groups of people with different lifestyles. With the Girasoles, since they were working all night long, it did not make sense to expect everyone to be there for a 9 AM meeting. I learned to schedule meetings and health fairs for the afternoon, at a place where they felt safe and arrange reunions around their busiest times. I teamed up with the Ministry of Health and with a local bar-owner and we put on a couple successful health fairs focusing on PAP exams, self breast exams and condom usage. If I could go back in time, I would have liked to dedicate a bit less time on the youth soup kitchen and a bit more time working with and helping to organize better the local Girasoles group.
2. I lived with a really amazing host family here in site for the first 4 ish months. I decided to move out because I wanted to experience living in Nicaragua on my own; what it was like to pay bills on my own, cook for myself etc... I'm glad I did that. But I should have gone back to visit them more often. With such a passionate counterpart, I worked A LOT. Many weeks we worked 60 hours, putting on events at night and working the regular soup kitchen schedule during the day. Most nights I got back to my house exhausted, happy and very content with the work we had done, but tired, so I did not visit. We're still close and I will see them this Friday at my going away party, but I wish I had gone to hang out at their house more often.
At the moment these are the only two things I can think of that I may have changed. I can definitely look back and know that I really do not have regrets. Don't get me wrong, it has been a rollercoaster of emotions, sometimes changing 5 times in one day. But for Peace Corps, that's normal!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)