Change is good.

A lot of time has passed since I originally told you of my site change—the search and paperwork amounted to a much longer time “out of work” than I would have liked. You might have been wondering what I have been up to, when I would stop travelling and actually start working, what kind of work I would be doing in the future, etc. Even if you weren’t, I am going to tell you right now.

I was at my new placement for four days that past week, and I was able to get a pretty good glimpse of the type of organization it is, the work style of my new co-workers, and the ideas of the community regarding the organization. The work I will be doing is strictly community based, and the organizations’ main projects at the moment include scholarships for about 500 students, community organizing, early childhood development, and linking with local schools to get them the learning resources they need. They have a large parent organization, youth organization, and children’s organization—each one has officers and conducts regular activities and meetings. From what I have seen so far, it is truly an empowering agency—the community volunteers are highly involved, take on their own responsibility for projects, and are merely just assisted by the organization (which is how true community development should be). I was very impressed.

While the first month will mainly be “immersion” and getting to know my co-workers and the community members, my job description mainly consists of conducting trainings for both the mothers and youth in the community, as well as assisting them with establishing a youth center from the ground up. This will involve creating a vision with the community, drafting a proposal, and doing a lot of networking for resources. The main skill I hope to transfer to them over my remaining time here is technical writing skills, as this is where they have expressed the most need within the organization.

Overall, I am super excited about this next endeavor as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I will be doing exactly the kind of work I pictured I would be doing when I signed up for the Peace Corps and dreamed about it before I came. (Wow, complicated sentence). I will undoubtedly keep you all posted about my projects as they come up. Wish me luck!