P.S. Grams, just wanted to let you know I received your letter last Friday. Big thanks and I'm looking into how to send one back ;)
love you.
~K
26 February 2010
Santa Ana
Immersion Days...
I'm in the Santa Ana region, (near Guatamala) of El Salvador for a long weekend. I arrived yesterday around noon after waking up at 5am. I had to take 5 different buses and 4 hours of trying to stay awake so I didn't get something jacked from my backpack. The training in El Salvador is intense on security and makes us afraid to travel. Yes San Salvador and El Salvador in general is dangerous but the warnings in training have been so excesses and I have gotten to the point where I am looking at little old abuelitas with suspision...
Anyway, Santa Ana is very tranquilo and clean compared to the area I've been staying in San Vicente. The volunteer I am staying with is what they call "COSing" Close Of Service. She has been here two years so its nice to pick her brain a bit and get the real scoop on all things PC in E.S.
Little later we are going to walk about an hour to a Canton (smaller than a pueblo) to a community meeting about youth. Should be interesting. Then I'm going to stay there with a family for the night to get the whole 'canton' feel since that is where I'll be most likely placed. Aka, more rural w/less luxuries. Then back to the volunteer's pueblo Saturday night before I head back to the training grounds on the other end of the country.
current status: glad to have a break from training
I'm in the Santa Ana region, (near Guatamala) of El Salvador for a long weekend. I arrived yesterday around noon after waking up at 5am. I had to take 5 different buses and 4 hours of trying to stay awake so I didn't get something jacked from my backpack. The training in El Salvador is intense on security and makes us afraid to travel. Yes San Salvador and El Salvador in general is dangerous but the warnings in training have been so excesses and I have gotten to the point where I am looking at little old abuelitas with suspision...
Anyway, Santa Ana is very tranquilo and clean compared to the area I've been staying in San Vicente. The volunteer I am staying with is what they call "COSing" Close Of Service. She has been here two years so its nice to pick her brain a bit and get the real scoop on all things PC in E.S.
Little later we are going to walk about an hour to a Canton (smaller than a pueblo) to a community meeting about youth. Should be interesting. Then I'm going to stay there with a family for the night to get the whole 'canton' feel since that is where I'll be most likely placed. Aka, more rural w/less luxuries. Then back to the volunteer's pueblo Saturday night before I head back to the training grounds on the other end of the country.
current status: glad to have a break from training
04 February 2010
its the little things
1. running water in the hotel = shower before bed tonight woo hoo!
2. INTERNET wifi at hotel tonight as well...amazing what a difference a day makes
3. my first in country pupusas mmmm...
4. Spanish placement interview (yikes was I nervous) but I think I made the cut to be in the "able to conjugate" group.(glad the gringos didn't put me to shame too much) I had to give a mock speech to my local community on the topic of education for girls and why it is important. Not only did I have a sudden wave of passion for this topic bubble up inside me but it killed me to not have the necessary vocabulary to convey my point. If you know me at all, you know how hard that was for me. Hence my speech was all of about 60 seconds. At the end, my interviewer said "are you done?" oops you want more?
5. Typhoid shot. ouchy...in the same exact spot as the H1N1 shot that had been plunged into the fatty part of my upper tricep area yesterday.
6. I'm on Chloroquine (aka Malaria pills): may cause diarrhea, difficulty in seeing to read (good thing I have laser vision in one eye!), nausea, cramps, and some crazy vivid dreams. oh and we can't donate our blood for 3 years after I discontinue the use...noooo not toxic at all.
7. We split up into our program groups. My program is Community Organization & Economic Development (COED) and as luck would have it...our group pretty much rocks. This pleases me very much.
Current Status: two thumbs up
2. INTERNET wifi at hotel tonight as well...amazing what a difference a day makes
3. my first in country pupusas mmmm...
4. Spanish placement interview (yikes was I nervous) but I think I made the cut to be in the "able to conjugate" group.(glad the gringos didn't put me to shame too much) I had to give a mock speech to my local community on the topic of education for girls and why it is important. Not only did I have a sudden wave of passion for this topic bubble up inside me but it killed me to not have the necessary vocabulary to convey my point. If you know me at all, you know how hard that was for me. Hence my speech was all of about 60 seconds. At the end, my interviewer said "are you done?" oops you want more?
5. Typhoid shot. ouchy...in the same exact spot as the H1N1 shot that had been plunged into the fatty part of my upper tricep area yesterday.
6. I'm on Chloroquine (aka Malaria pills): may cause diarrhea, difficulty in seeing to read (good thing I have laser vision in one eye!), nausea, cramps, and some crazy vivid dreams. oh and we can't donate our blood for 3 years after I discontinue the use...noooo not toxic at all.
7. We split up into our program groups. My program is Community Organization & Economic Development (COED) and as luck would have it...our group pretty much rocks. This pleases me very much.
Current Status: two thumbs up
02 February 2010
K.C.'s Last Stand in the U.S.A.
Of course I woke up at 6am...a full two hours before my alarm was set to jolt me out of dreamland. Alas the day has come...three years in the making... where its time to take up my bags and officially enlist in the Peace Corps. Staging, then Pre-Service Training and then out to the real deal of peace corping it up.
I'm really excited for this adventure but the last three month of goodbyes first in Denver, then Iowa and finally now here in DC has reaffirmed that I have an enormous, strong, loving base of support here in the states. I'm so blessed to be able to go out into the world sometimes feeling alone and scared but all the time knowing I have an extensive body of marvelous people who I can tap into at any time who will refuel me when I feel like I'm sputtering out. Thanks everyone for showing me your love and putting aside time to send me off on my new adventure.
I will try to keep everyone updated here on my blog about treking through the jungle up a volcano with a machete eating mangos and pupusas.... but the first few days I may not have access to internet so hang in there with me.
Until then please enjoy CCR's Proud Mary :) Rollin' Rollin'
I'm really excited for this adventure but the last three month of goodbyes first in Denver, then Iowa and finally now here in DC has reaffirmed that I have an enormous, strong, loving base of support here in the states. I'm so blessed to be able to go out into the world sometimes feeling alone and scared but all the time knowing I have an extensive body of marvelous people who I can tap into at any time who will refuel me when I feel like I'm sputtering out. Thanks everyone for showing me your love and putting aside time to send me off on my new adventure.
I will try to keep everyone updated here on my blog about treking through the jungle up a volcano with a machete eating mangos and pupusas.... but the first few days I may not have access to internet so hang in there with me.
Until then please enjoy CCR's Proud Mary :) Rollin' Rollin'
31 January 2010
30 January 2010
Staging
Peace Corps Staging:
n.
also known as pre-departure orientation, will be a brief yet intense orientation to the Peace Corps and the general demands of being an effective and safe Volunteer.
On Feb 2nd (this Tue!) I will check into a Georgetown hotel and join approximately 36 other Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) who will also be going to El Salvador.
Staging Event
TUE, FEB. 2nd
12:30 pm - Registration (officially become a Peace Corps Trainee)
4:25-4:45 pm- Break
WED, FEB 3rd
7:30 am
- Check out of hotel
- Bus arrives for loading and departure to Washington Reagan Airport
- FLIGHT DEPARTS FOR EL SALVADOR !
28 January 2010
going broke
"...because in the United States of America,
no one should go broke because they chose to go to college."
25 January 2010
catharsis
Current status:
anxious + excited + stressed + second guessing + frantic + feeling blessed
= Soul shining and feeling very alive :)
21 January 2010
anticipation
“Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again. The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw be”
- Samuel Johnson
18 January 2010
Happy MLK day
"If you can't fly then run,
if you can't run then walk,
if you can't walk then crawl,
but whatever you do
you have to keep moving forward."
you have to keep moving forward."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
12 January 2010
TripIt
My newest coolest discovery: TripIt
from what I can tell its a sort of Facebook of travel.
It takes 2 seconds to connect and BAM instant connections.
from what I can tell its a sort of Facebook of travel.
- You sign up,
- connect w/friends, and
- enter in your travel plans.
THEN
TripIt tells you who of your friends will also be traveling or who may currently live in that area. With friends living all over the globe and who travel on a regular basis this is a pretty awesome connection tool.It takes 2 seconds to connect and BAM instant connections.
06 January 2010
23 December 2009
movement
an old arab proverb,
fi al-haraka baraka,
literally means
"there is a blessing in the movement,"
but more freely it can be translated as:
"he who travels harvests goods."
18 December 2009
MAP IT OUT
First a broader look at the Central American Countries
you will notice that teenie tiny red country being spooned by Guatemala and Honduras is El Salvador.
zoom in and you will see the capital, San Salvador and to the right you will see San Vicente and I *think* in all the paperwork, booklets etc.. I read we would be training there the first 8-10 wks.
you will notice that teenie tiny red country being spooned by Guatemala and Honduras is El Salvador.
14 December 2009
adventure inspiration
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
~Andre Gide (French writer, humanist and moralist, 1947 nobel prize for literature, 1869-1951)
“I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it.”
~Rosalia de Castro
“The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing." ~Daniel J. Boorstin
“When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home”
~Thornton Wilder
~Andre Gide (French writer, humanist and moralist, 1947 nobel prize for literature, 1869-1951)
“I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it.”
~Rosalia de Castro
“The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing." ~Daniel J. Boorstin
“When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home”
~Thornton Wilder
things
So many things to do and I'm crossing them off my list one by one.
First up officially accepting my Peace Corps placement in El Salvador.
This leads to a series of other THINGS such as an updated resume, application for a government passport, aspiration statement for the country director and of course sorting through my clothes and getting myself back to something closer to what I used to have living in hot and humid south TX where I would get excited if I saw frost on the rooftops on the coldest days of the year and my heaviest coat was a jean jacket. So I'm off to sort through clothes making a keep, donate, toss pile. Ultimate goal: to leave Denver this next weekend with only a car full of nessesities.
First up officially accepting my Peace Corps placement in El Salvador.
This leads to a series of other THINGS such as an updated resume, application for a government passport, aspiration statement for the country director and of course sorting through my clothes and getting myself back to something closer to what I used to have living in hot and humid south TX where I would get excited if I saw frost on the rooftops on the coldest days of the year and my heaviest coat was a jean jacket. So I'm off to sort through clothes making a keep, donate, toss pile. Ultimate goal: to leave Denver this next weekend with only a car full of nessesities.
09 December 2009
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