Introduction

I have been invited to serve in the Peace Corps in the Business Development Program in Honduras! I start on February 22nd, 2010. Although I won't know where exactly I'm going to be spending the next two years of my life now, it will most likely be a community of 1,000-3,000 people. The Peace Corps tells you where you're going to be after you've completed the 3 months of training.

This past May I graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with a BA in Economics and Spanish. I was an exchange student in Pamplona, Spain during my sophomore year of high school. Then in my junior year of college I got to go back to Spain, to Salamanca, to study for a semester. I've been to rural Bolivia twice to do service work through my church in my hometown of Highlands, NC. I've also tutored Hispanic kids and translated for a local Hispanic outreach nonprofit. All in all, I'm pretty near fluent in Spanish, though I have a hard time translating songs and Spanish citcoms. I do speak with a Castillian accent, though I have a feeling I'll be picking up a new dialect in Honduras.

I applied for the Peace Corps in January 2009. I knew that I wanted to do something interesting while I was young and before I started grad school or looking for a job. I met a Peace Corps recruiter on campus at a career fair and knew right away that I should apply. What a way to give back to the world. I also figured that doing the Peace Corps would be a good way to put my economics into practice, as well as solidify my Spanish.

But the Peace Corps takes a long time to process your application and I didn't know if I was in or not until just a month ago. So since graduation in May until November, I was hanging out on the fence of life, not knowing my future. They said to stay positive and keep a sense of humor while I waited, but I was ready to know one way or the other.

So, I am relieved and pumped at this point, to finally have a date and a destination. I've been studying up a lot on microcredit and poverty. I've also been reading other volunteers' blogs as well as everything I can find about Honduras. Speaking of which, it's been very interesting following the recent politics of Honduras, considering it's the first country in Latin America to have had a coup since the end of the Cold War. Of course Micheletti and his supporters say it wasn't a coup, but we'll leave it at that. I am relieved that the country had elections just a few days ago and hope that it means the healing process is under way. It's going to be so fascinating being there in the wake of all of this and I can't wait to get a better grasp on it all.

I plan to use this blog as a way to let my family and friends keep tabs on me, as well as anybody else out there considering the Peace Corps or just wanting to read about one person's adventure abroad. At this point there's no telling how often I'll get to add to it, but I'm going to try to write as often as I can.