From me to you

In the beginning, I had a much simpler blog. Mainly, I had a spot where I could throw up some pictures as a means of updating friends and family. All the thoughts and funny stories were distributed by email, mainly for the benefit of all my old-coworkers because blogs are blocked from work. Naturally, I didn’t save any of those emails, and now all of those stories are lost. Calvin said it best when he informed Hobbes that he had to keep up his correspondences so that history would have a sample of his genius after he was gone. Following that line of thought, I realized it would be a tragedy, not just for me but for the entire human race, if I did not begin to record my experiences in a more sustainable manner.

And so here we are, beginning my memories anew with a fresh new blog. I will do my best to provide all the entertainment of the best selling novels – adventure, mystery, comedy, a few tears, and possibly even some romance – but without the length, of course. These will be non-fiction stories, because you simply can not make this stuff up. First though, I’ll give you the basics. I am in the ninth group of Peace Corps volunteers in the wonderful country of Peru. I had gotten my BA in International Business/Finance (with a minor in Economics), spent a couple years in what most people call “the real world”, and then decided to pursue my lifelong goal of living abroad.

But why the Peace Corps, you ask? Well, when I signed up I had a multitude of reasons, most of which were very philanthropic sounding – a more fulfilling job, helping others better their lives, learning about a new culture, exposing myself to new ideas and viewpoints that differed from my own, etc. I’m pretty sure I firmly believed all of that at the time. But I’ve noticed that the longer I am here, the more those reasons fade and are replaced by other, less definable, reasons. I may have come to Peru for those reasons, but they are definitely not the reasons I stay. I stay because I’m still trying to learn the language. I stay because I have never been this far out of my comfort zone before. I stay because of all of the wonderful new people I have met and continue to meet everyday. Ultimately, I stay because here, unlike any other time in as long as I can remember, I feel alive. (Strange how living is completely different than feeling alive. Equally strange is how much I love feeling alive here and how much I miss living in the US.) So I guess, regardless of the reasoning behind my choices, becoming a volunteer was the right decision!