(Part 2) “The World is your Oyster”… and old school hipsters

Listening to: The National – White Sessions (Live album)

Really, before I rattled off into randomness, the point of the blog post initially was to discuss my current situation, and update you (all my lovely readers) about what has been going on here in my world. WHAT I AM SAYING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS IN THE BOTTOM HALF, SO I ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ IT.

If you haven’t read part 1, do it. It is full of useless information…BUT, you will be able to spit out some small talk when you are on your next date. The date will certainly might be impressed, and… well read it RIGHT HERE.

With 7 months (likely) to go before I finish my service in Peace Corps, my friends who came 6 months before me are getting ready to leave. This got me thinking a little about post Peace Corps.

In Peace Corps, we commonly refer to it as High-School esque. While we officially have no football team, or cheerleaders (which for a high school not having those would be lame,) we have gossip, rumors, cliques… and all of those other things that made High School fantastic. Which reminds me that my 10 year reunion was last week. WOW, congrats to us for being older, and actually kind of bummed I missed it.

One other thing we have in Peace Corps; since we are two years of service (24 months) and every 6 months we get new Peace Corps Volunteers… do the math. That makes for 4 groups in country at once. Therefore, we naturally refer to ourselves as Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.

Well in one months time, my fellow PC classmates and I will be “seniors.” We get to give all the freshmen wedgies, and make them come to our site and do our dirty laundry (which is a paradox, as laundry NEVER gets clean here… HAHAHAHA!)

I will be a senior. The final quarter in my proverbial homecoming football game. While I don’t want to live in the future, naturally I wonder what is up next for me.

“The world is your oyster.”

See… it makes sense now right. I just went about it all roundabout-like. Bill the hipster was creative.

What is next for me. I want to go back to school maybe for development work. Maybe I want to start teaching. Maybe I will do something totally unrelated… kind of starting on my 3rd career path. Which I argue is just one, because all the prior experience is useful.

But friends, the thought of all of this is overwhelming sometimes. I feel like I am in this place where I can do anything. I feel like I can ace an interview for a TV anchor position for the local news (which when I think of it, Parkersburg, WV TV affiliate is a shoe-in for me… but they get a huge “E” for effort, and an “A” for humor.)

I feel I am coming into some huge roundabout, and have to choose one of the 50+ offshoots to pursue next. I don’t even remember life feeling this open when I initially graduated from university.

So…Does anyone know of any jobs I might fit in well for, and I could apply for? Anything from writing to non-profit work to music industry related work. I’m down. You know me well enough.

But regardless, soon I will be a senior. The reflections and feelings of a year and a half gone by are crazy. It is so hard to fathom I have been here this long.

I am going to baffle you with another quote… this from one of my favorite poets, Robert Frost.

“But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.”
– From the poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

Because still left in my 7 months include a number of projects, and I don’t need to be getting all reflective and senior-itus-y. So in my time, here are the things that I have left to do. At some point friends, I may ask you for some small monetary assistance on a project. Just a fair warning, though I will try not to have to go those avenues. But connecting my Peace Corps service community with my communities and loved-ones back home is fantastic, and I want to make you aware of all the goodness that occurs in the world through helping others out, even with just a little.

Main projects:
– Environmental Art Competition and Environmental Workshop: The idea of this is to work with youth in youth centers (where we have PC volunteers) and have an art competition with the theme “Lasting Landscapes.” The youth will create environmentally themed art, along with a description. One or two winners will be chosen from each youth center to attend an art gallery showing, AND environmental workshop to discuss various environmental issues, and propose environmental projects they can take back to their respective community and implement.

Fuel Efficient Technologies (Biomass Briquettes and Stove Technologies): This is aimed at reducing the amount of fuel-wood consumption by presenting an alternative fuel. Likely my most difficult project, as essentially I am trying to market an existing idea to a new potential market. Am using waste (sawdust, paper, agro-waste) to create combustible briquettes, that in addition to lowering fuel-wood consumption, will be a small-income generating project for a group of women. Trying to get cooperation with the government.

Water Project: I am working with an association in a small outer village of 100 houses in order to connect it with the national water grid. All the houses have taps, but they need assistance in supplies (think hoses, maybe a water house to treat the water) to connect with a local spring. Connecting with the local spring provides fresh and potable water… BUT maybe more importantly saves time and energy for people having to collect water on a day to day basis, and allows for more time spent in other areas of their lives. (FYI-This may be the project I ask for some assistance with… more later as it develops.)

Tree Planting- Working with a group to provides families of a poor remote village with Apple trees (roughly 1000 trees), so that they can be planted, helping to stop erosion, but mainly used for providing income-generation to local villagers in the future. This project was going to happen last year, but there were some issues with weather being too warm, and last minute check problems.

International Womens Day event: hopefully next March planning a women’s day event, where women (young and old) get together, discuss the national women’s rights laws in Morocco, and also having guest speakers all in the name of women’s empowerment. If you know of any women’s groups in the states, maybe there is potential for some sort of collaboration. The women here do fantastic things with their time. I am really passionate about gender and development issues, because specifically the empowerment of women is so so so important in the development of a nation.

Teaching the Kiddies: Probably teaching some English and tutoring students, and also conducting environment and health lessons in schools, and our youth center (which HOPEFULLY is opening up in the next week.) I am likely going to ask book companies for English books, or English software (we have a new computer lounge with 6 computers that will be connected to the internet!)

Those are the main things, and certainly I will be helping out on some other projects that other volunteers are doing (for example next week we have a workshop in town where we train women from rural villages to become “Community Health Leaders,”) in order to improve basic health and sanitation conditions in rural villages, and to recognize when they need to go to the clinic.

Soon, maybe tomorrow or tonight, I will be posting some pictures from the fall weather, and getting all artsy on y’all. I realize I have been lacking in the photo department over the past 5 months. Sadly I tried to take pictures last night, but my battery was dead. The light was great and the sunset even better during a local bike-ride.

I love you all. I miss you, and I likely will be home at the end of next May or early June (going to WWOOF for 3-4 weeks in scandanavia I think… work on an organic farm.) So mark your calendars accordingly, as I hope to see a great number of you, and travel a little bit (if the money allows) to see you, catch up etc.

Much love, and if you have questions, please let me know.