After signing my name committing myself to 27 months of service in the Peace Corps, questions came fast and furious. People who know me best generally asked, "When do you leave?" followed with, “What will you be doing?” Others, especially those who have known me only in the anomalous context of a project manager, tended towards the more basic, “Are you crazy?”
To address the first two questions:
On October 13, 2011, I depart the US to head to Barranquilla, Colombia where I’ll spend 3 months training to be part of Colombia’s first official Peace Corps project in approximately 30 years (more on that later). After those 3 months, I’ll receive a placement in/around either Barranquilla, Santa Marta, or Cartagena, all port cities on the northwest Caribbean coast of Colombia (extremely safe and developed, far away from Colombia’s notorious mountains and their profitable exports!)
Wherever I end up, according to my “official” job description, I’ll be a part of Peace Corps’ TEFL program, or, Teaching English for Livelihoods. In other words, I will be teaching some level of English to some age of people, along with working with a local co-teacher to develop English curriculums. How will this play out in real life? This remains to be seen! I’ll do my best to describe that for you in some detail during the next two years or so.
As for the question, “am I crazy?”…well, I’m probably not an objective judge of that…but since I’m assuming that the question more begs a response detailing why I’d choose to leave a job where I made good money, worked with great people, and could honestly appreciate (if not always love) the work I did…well, no. I’m not.
Here are a few of my stock responses:
• I like teaching and will most likely be a teacher (in the US) someday…so as far as job descriptions go, this really does make sense
• I have never been fluent in another language, but now it’s do or die!
• I’ve always wanted to spend some time living in another country…and if not now, when?
• This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was little
• I majored in creative writing and want to pursue that as a career path…pretty sure I’ll get some good story ideas down there
• After losing my phone for the third time in a month, I decided to move to a place where that would no longer be an issue.
But really, I think this picture that my father sent me expresses the ultimate impetus I had for applying for and accepting this job:
So. Yes, of course I’m going to miss everyone and many things from my current life, and yes, of course I’m nervous on lots of different levels. However--for the first time in a long time, knowing that I’ll be heading to Colombia and spending the next two years in the Peace Corps has left me feeling like I’m exactly where I should be in life…so for now, I’m just going to run with that!
