Accepting the Invite

The BIG blue packet arrived today!! I heard the UPS truck from blocks away and ran outside when the UPS guy was walking up the walkway - he laughed and said "Congratulations!"


This is what we wait for since the moment we hit "submit" on the initial application! After hours of sifting through all the paperwork I found the "Accept or Decline your invite" paper. I immediatly wanted to run to the computer and write up the e-mail with the blurb they require you use to use for either option. Mid stride-jump-thing that i was doing all afternoon, I felt like I should make sure to do everything as instucted (read the Welcome Book, Read you assignment thoroughly, read Safety and Security Packet, and re-read Peace Corps' Core Expectations) - this does effect the next 2+ years of my life!

So I read all I could about my placement and nothing had changed. I still want to go as much as I had prior to this - partially because I had done so much reading about the DR the past couple of days and had made my way to find the online copy of the Welcome Book (via Peace Corps Wiki!).

                          So here I am - an official Peace Corps Invitee. Ready to pack up and go!

Calming the Flame - Welcome to my blog!

Within us all there is a pull. This pull can be physical, it can be emotional and for some it may be mental. We are pulled towards an idea that was planted in us a long time ago and cannot figure out what it is. We cannot label it and we wait. Being proactive in finding it will proove to be frustrating so we hope that this thing will just appear and will make us wise. Unfortunatly, this is not the way it works. Be active in pursuing your curiosity and you'll see that on some arbitrary day while you are going about your daily routine, it comes to you and it will consume your every thought. This is when you realize that this desire will not cease to exist, or even calm, until you have given into the pull and the tension eases.

                                          And so begins a new chapter in my life.


I have embraced my pull and am now headed on an adventure and journey of a lifetime. I will be serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic for 27 months beginning on August 21st, 2012. For those of you who have spent the past year listening to me talk about all the nuances of the application process, you know how much I want this. For those of you who were lucky enough to be spared from my ramblings, this is what I have always wanted. No matter where I was I always felt like I wasn't doing as much as I could to help families who, in my eyes, need it the most. I tried to fill this on a local level by working with our own country's underserved population but it wasn't the same. Watching my father dedicate his career to helping on a global scale led me to see that it is possible - it is not only the philanthropic celebrities, politicians and freelance journalists who get to make a difference, but everyday people can too. I remember sitting at the kitchen table as a freshman in high school and my father opening up a card from a family he had provided a loan to in Ecuador thanking him for what he did. That is when I asked myself "why not?" I could not answer this question without leading to another push of "why not?" So here I am - following my passion for international work helping others and I cannot imagine being happier!

 I will be placed in a village working as a Health Extension volunteer - really this means organizing women's groups to discuss maternal health issues, teaching preventative sexual health, educating on HIV/AIDS issues and much more. The thing with Peace Corps is that they give you an assignment but you really don't know what you will be doing until you are there and can see the need. The beauty of it is that you can take up your own secondary projects as you see fit - of course you need funding though so, in come the grant proposals. I will be doing my fair share of grant writing, which I know nothing about, but am planning on picking it up as needed.... lets hope that works!

I will be updating this blog as I begin to preapre for this new expirience and will continue to post during my service. I may use this as a platform for rants about cultural differences that aggrevate me, a place to share my passion for being in a place where I am sorrounded by spanish-speakers, and will defifnitly use this as a way for you all to ensure that I am safe!!!

For everyone that has supported my decision to drop everyting and pursue a long-lived dream, thank you. Most of you will never know how grateful I am - during the highs and lows of the application and decision making process, you are the reason I kept going. It is because of you that I can make an impact. Los Quiero Mucho!