You’ve been INVITED

So, I know it’s been a while since I’ve written an entry in here – almost TWO months!  Jeez…I’m a slacker.  Anyway…I have lots to catch up on!

I went to Haiti a week or so ago to check out my friend, Regine’s non-profit, Lighthouse LANDS.  Haiti is a very interesting place.  It is hill after hill, mountain after mountain of beautiful countryside.  Green as green can be and the water is beautiful – I mean, it IS a tropical island for God’s sake.  But it is OH SO POOR.  There is a lot to write about my time spent there and I will get to that in another entry, but…I have big NEWS!

Last Thursday, October 30, 2014, I FINALLY RECEIVED MY PEACE CORPS INVITATION!!!!!!!!!  Only 380 days AFTER I applied, but who’s counting.  I’ve been invited and I couldn’t be more excited.  Actually…I have only recently become uber excited.  When I first received the invitation, I was actually a little pissed.  I was angry because there was a complete lack of communication from the Peace Corps since JUNE – 5 months of nothing.  I would occasionally email my Placement Officer, but she was, quite frankly, rude and not very helpful.  But I digress…I’VE BEEN INVITED, I’VE BEEN INVITED, I’VE BEEN INVITED!

To where you ask?!  MALAWI!

Malawi is known as the Warm Heart of Africa because of the warmth of its people.  I can’t wait to see for myself!

xoxo,
M

Hey, Hey…Haiti?

At this point, it’s been 355 days since I submitted my application to join the United States Peace Corps.  THREE HUNDRED, FIFTY-FIVE DAYS.  Through blogs I’ve been reading and Facebook groups I’ve joined, there are people who applied the same time as me and have been in their country of service since June…of THIS YEAR.  I’ve also seen people that applied in April of 2014 already receive their invitation.  It’s been a little disheartening, and has caused me to start questioning if the Peace Corps is really what I would like to do.

Could I make myself happy here in Raleigh, continuing to work my Corporate America job?  Should I look into going back to school for my Masters in something (more than likely NOT business)?  If I didn’t do the Peace Corps or something like it, would I be ok with that?  I had all these questions, but I had no answers.  I kept thinking about how I believed doing something like the Peace Corps was my calling.  What would God want me to do?  Would God be upset if I retreated?

Wanting to get some advice from a person in the Church and a friend, I started drafting an email to a woman named Regine.  Regine was a pastor at the Church I have been attending and am a member of.  She is truly a wonderful person, someone I trust, and my soul sister.  I knew I could ask her any questions about “callings”, God, etc., and she provide me with her honest and well-educated opinion.  Well, before I could send my email to her, she sent one to me.

But let me back up for a minute.  Regine and most of her family are originally from Haiti.  They moved to New Jersey 20+ years ago, but they still have family that lived in Jeremie, Haiti and a few people that live(d) in Port-Au-Prince.  When the huge earthquake happened a couple of years ago (2010), one of Regine’s aunts died.  To honor their Aunt and help the people of country, Regine and her family started Lighthouse LANDS (Learning Agricultural Network for Development Sustainability).  The vision of Lighthouse LANDs is to educate, equip, and train women in sustainable farming solutions.  The hope is here is that by training the women to grow their own food, they can help alleviate hunger for their family and community.

As I mentioned, Regine was a pastor at my Church, White Plains United Methodist.  That is how we got to know one another.  Well, in January 2014, the church was downsizing and Regine’s position, as an associate pastor, was being eliminated.  I was devastated.  She was my Methodist guru, my soul sister.  As cliche as it may sound, she was the person who was helping me out of the dark and helping me realize my calling.  Even though I (and our entire Church congregation) was devastated and concerned about where our beloved pastor would go, Regine had bigger plans.  Regine was going to take on the Executive Director position of Lighthouse LANDS in order to get more traction and move the organization along.

So, now that you are caught up…before I could send an email asking my friend for advice, she sent me one.  Regine knew of my passion/calling and knew I applied to the Peace Corps hoping to receive an invite to a country in Africa.  In her email she asked how the process was going especially with the Ebola outbreak, etc.  She also asked if I thought the Peace Corps would send me down to Haiti because she could use me on the ground there.

As I wrote her back, I told her of my hesitations with the Peace Corps and that I still had not received an invitation.  I mentioned to her my thoughts on returning to school and my passion for wanting to help women receive education and be sustainable on their own.  In a reply, Regine stated “this is exactly what we are doing in Haiti” and she proceeded to tell me the plan she had in mind for me:

(1) Teach English at the school her organization has taken over
(2) Start a Junior Achievement program at the school
(3) Work with the graduates of the Lighthouse LANDS program to build their own businesses
(4) Coordinate the volunteer teams coming to Jeremie, Haiti to help

WOW.  That’s all I can really say.  I couldn’t really create a more perfect job for me.

This is just the beginning.  There are still lots of questions to be asked, but to say that I’ve had a twist in fate would be a massive understatement.  Let’s see what unfolds.  I’ll keep you posted.

XOXO,
M

Wow, Albania!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the next country I was going to research was Albania.  Even though I am currently “under consideration” for Malawi, I don’t think that is necessarily where I could end up due to my asthma.  (Albania, The Phillipines, and Namibia can accommodate Asthma, while it doesn’t appear as though Malawi can…I digress).

Albania is located in Eastern Europe and has had a pretty tumultuous past.  

First declaring independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, only to be conquered later by Italy (1939) and occupied by Germany (1943).  Then in the 60s they allied themselves with the USSR and in 1978 with China.  Finally in the 90s, I guess they were tired of the communist rule and established a multiparty democracy.  As found on the CIA website, “the transition has proven challenging as successive governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, dilapidated infrastructure, powerful organized crime networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made progress in its democratic development since first holding multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain”.

…but deficiencies remain…and this is where the United States Peace Corps comes in.  Peace Corps Volunteers work  in areas of Health, Community and Economic Development, and English Education.

English Education Project (TEFL) 

Volunteers serving in the English Education Project (TEFL) teach primarily in high schools throughout the country.  Most volunteers teach English as a foreign language to Albanian students as part of a regular general middle or high school program, but will have many related duties in helping both students and teachers practice using English to communicate.

Health Education Project (HE) 

The Health Education Project (HE) is linked to the Albanian health system through Directorates of Public Health and at the rural health center level. Volunteers work with their colleagues to identify priority health education issues. They help design and deliver campaigns and training to health issues often using a calendar developed by the Institute of Public Health.

Community and Organizational Development Project (COD) 

The Community and Organizational Development Project (COD) focuses volunteer placement with either a local government unit (Municipality/Commune/Regional Council) or one of a variety of different community based organizations. Examples of work assignments include a locally-based independent NGO, locally-based branches of national-level NGOs, local units of a central government institution, and local NGOs which work on cultural heritage.

I would hope that if I were to be nominated to Albania, which I highly doubt I will as Eastern Europe was not one of the places I listed for the areas I would like to go to; but if I were, I would hope they would place me in the Community and Organization Development project.  I believe I could bring a lot to the table here with my 10+ years in Finance.  But who knows what the PC is doing…all I know is I am still waiting…

And whilst I wait, I google images of Albania.  It definitely has a WOW factor.

 

 

Trying to keep calm while I wait…and wait…and wait some more for my PC invitation,
M

The Philippines

Um, wow.  That is all I really have to say after completing my initial, but brief research of the Philippines.  I mean, look at these photos I snagged from a tourism website:

Isn’t it beautiful?!  Like I said…WOW.

Here is some additional information about The Philippines (WHOA – seven THOUSAND islands):

Philippines  CAPITAL CITY – Manila OFFICIAL LANGUAGE(S) – Filipino (Tagalog), English REGIONAL LANGUAGES – Bikol, Cebuano (Bisaya), Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Pampango, Pangasinense, Waray AREA (KM2) – 115,830 mi2  composing 7,107 islands POPULATION – 96.71 million (2012) GDP – 250.3 billion USD ‎(2012) CURRENCY – Peso (PHP)

Though absolutely beautiful (and now heralded as Asia’s most overlooked paradise), the Philippines isn’t without problems.  The Peace Corps has a presence in the Philippines to help out in three major categories:  (a)  Education, (b)  Children, Youth and Family Services, and (c) Environment.

While my nomination is for the Health Sector, I would be happy to receive an invite to the Philippines in the Children, Youth and Family Services Sector (CYF).  Below is a description of what those volunteers do out in the field.  It seems pretty awesome:

Almost all CYF Volunteers engage in non-formal or formal teaching of basic literacy, which includes English reading/writing skills and basic mathematical functions. The main difference between a CYF Volunteer and an Education Volunteer has to do with the Host Agency placement. Education volunteers are placed exclusively at public schools run by the government. CYF Volunteers are placed at NGOs, LGUs, or residential centers.

Volunteers can also expect to teach life skills and staff development. Life skills development includes training in self-awareness, decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, goal setting, HIV/AIDS, and reproductive health education. CYF Volunteers act as mentors, co-teachers, and catalysts for community action. Some CYF Volunteers also coach sports or work on the development of their clients’ skills to help them learn how to gain livelihoods once they leave the protection of residential institutions. Often CYF Volunteers help lead the way in tackling previously unaddressed problems and piloting new approaches to client support and development.

A CYF Volunteer also serves as a staff and organizational development facilitator and advisor. Volunteers co-plan and co-implement staff trainings on a range of topics such as stress, anger, and time management; basic counseling; child development; behavior modification; rehabilitative techniques; and other programs that enhance the delivery of psychosocial services

Anywho…that’s all I have this evening.  Next on the list of countries to research…ALBANIA!

Keeping Calm and Waiting for my PC Invite,

M

Ready to Invite?

Another post for today?  I think so.  It’s warranted.

So I joined the Future Peace Corps Volunteers group on Facebook some months ago.  It’s a pretty interesting group and I’m thankful for it, at times as many of us are going through similar things and we are all waiting, waiting, waiting for the coveted invite to appear in our inbox.  

Anyway, I was perusing the page yesterday when a guy mentioned his status in the Application Portal changed from “Interview Complete – Additional Assessment” to “Ready to Invite”.  After I read that I immediately signed in to my Application Portal and saw that my status had also been changed.  Let me just tell you, I was SOOOOOO excited.  I just knew I was going to receive my invite at any time.  I mean, it has almost been a year since I applied and 6 months since I received my nomination; my invitation was coming I just knew it!!!

Well, a couple of hours later (with no invite in hand), I went back to the Facebook group to read any updates and see if anyone had received their invitation yet, etc. when I read the chain regarding the change of status.  I don’t know if I have ever been more heart broken than when I read it was a glitch  in the system and statuses had been changed back to “Interview Complete – Additional Assessment”.  Heart.  One Million Pieces.

So here I am…no invite in hand, waiting, checking my email every second like a crazy person.

Keeping calm and waiting for my PC invite,
M