Peace Corps Panama

Hello, welcome to my blog. I created this blog as I am preparing to leave to Panama for the next 27 months. I will be serving as a Sustainable Agriculture Systems Extension Agent. I will try to keep my blog as updated as possible. Come Visit and Stay tuned so that I can share this experience with you.


Hola, Bienvenidos a mi Blog. Me estoy preparando para ir a Panamá los próximos 27 meses. Voy a estar sirviendo como agente de Sistemas sostenibles de Agricultura. Tratare de mantener este blog lo más actualizado posible. Vénganme a visitar. Manténgase informados con mi blog para que pueda compartir estas experiencias con ustedes.


Pictures

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Live simply so other can simply live.....

According to the Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus:
Detach: verb Unfasten or disengage and remove; impartial; unemotional
Separate, uncouple, part disconnect, free, undo, cut off
.

In the midst of all those words is FREE. To detach oneself from certain things allows us to feel a certain freedom. Though the process of ridding our lives of the excess can be difficult often seemingly impossible, it is rewarding in its own way afterward.

Last night I cut my hair pretty short. I was nervous because I have always had relatively long hair but I did it anyway. I wanted a change and I wanted to have less to worry about in Panama. I know that I will not be able to take care of my hair as well as I should when I’m over there.

A little while after I got home, I went on a run. During that run, I almost forgot that I had cut my hair. I was still me and everything still felt the same. What had I been so nervous about? Why had the idea about cutting my hair been such a big/difficult decision?

On that run I remembered when a friend of mine was telling me about when she moved to San Francisco last year. Out of the entire story she told me, the only part that I found unbelievable and almost hearsay was the fact that both her and her husband moved there each with 2 suitcases! How is that possible? I moved up to Gainesville my last semester with only the necessary things I needed for the semester and it took two trips with my dad’s pick up full of my stuff. To condense that to 2 suitcases sounds unreal.

Now here I am, about a year since that conversation realizing that I need to fit the next two years of my life in ONE 80 lb suitcase. I have no choice now but to begin to learn to detach from things that are just excess in my life. Bart Yasso wrote in hist book “My life on the Run”, Live simply so that others can simply live. If nothing else, I think the Peace Corps will force me to live by these words. I am curious just how simple my life will get and maybe then, I will learn what freedom really feels like.
__ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Side story: My hair dresser asked me a million times if I was sure and every time I answered with more doubt in my voice. Her plan was to cut little by little until I said stop. The first level that she got to she said: “This is good trust me you don’t want it shorter”. I said: “Keep going, I don’t like this in between level…it’s not long and it’s not short. I don’t like being in the middle ground.” She said “ …so you like extremes”. I just laughed.
This woman whom I see once every couple months for at most ½ an hour was able to identify one of my personality virtue and/or flaw. Incredible.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Getting Ready

I read through some Journals of PCV that are in Panama right now. Reading their stories and seeing their pictures is getting me really excited about my trip.

76 days until Orientation...but who's counting?

I have done my Passport stuff, I've sent my resume and aspiration statement to Panama, and I've filled out press release sheet. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now =).

Monday, February 2, 2009

PANAMA

January 12,2009:
My online application was updated. Application status read:
“Peace Corps sent you an invitation kit on January 12, 2009. Within 10 days of receiving your kit, please call us regarding your decision to accept or decline our invitation. If we do not hear from you within this period, the assignment may be offered to another applicant.”

January 20, 2009
I am going to Panama!!
I recieved my inviation right before President Obama's Inaguration. The letter went something like this:

Dear Valeria,
Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that we invite you to begin training in Panama for Peace Corps Service. You will be joining thousands of Americans who are building stronger communities around the world. This call to action gives you the opportunity to learn new skills and to find the best in yourself....
The Packet included a little hand book titled: YOUR ASSIGNMENT
Country: PanamaProject: Sustainable AgricultureJob Title: Sustainable Agriculture Systems Extension AgentDates of Service: June 27, 2009 to June 24, 2011Orientation dates: April 21-22, 2009Pre-Service Training in Panama: April 22- June 26, 2009

LIFE IS CALLING

HOW FAR ARE YOU WILLING TO GO?
When I first heard about the Peace Corps, my eyes teared up and I got this really weird feeling over me. It was the type of program that I was looking for. It made me feel as though I would be doing something worthwhile with my talents, skills, and time.
The commitment is 27 months (months training and 2 years on location). Anyone visit. January 12th I got transferred from the Africa region to the Central/South America & Carribbean Region. A much welcomed change due to my fluency in spanish. When I first signed up, I wanted to go to Africa because I wanted to go to a place that I would never otherwise go visit. However as time went by, I started thinking realizing how difficult it would be to comunicate on a day to day basis, let alone help them through projects. Nonetheless I still wanted to go. When Brianna Fischer called me that Monday morning and told me that she thought I was a better candidate for the Central/South America & Carribbean Region, I was extatic.
The process has been pretty long. I started filling outmy application in January 2008. It is quite the application. After completeing my dental and medical reviews as well, I turned in application. Then I had an interview with Amy, the UF campus Peace Corps recruiter. The hard part about that interview is that it is difficult to prepare for an interview that could determine the next couple years of your life (no pressure). With my voice cracking, eyes watering, and palms sweating, I walked out of that interview praying that she had seen the desire firing in my eyes.
Between that Interview with Amy and the phone interview with Brianna was almost 9months. Throughout that time I traveled around the US, I taught swim lessons, worked at the UF Horse Research Unit, realized didn’t want to go to Vet school, started studying for the LSAT, Graduated from the Univeristy of Florida, moved back home, applied to Law School, started working with my dad, hit rock bottom emotionally, and started taking portugese. A lot can happen in 9 months.
The next two weeks will probably feel as long if not longer but I am anxiously awaiting my FedEx Letter to arrive. When one door shuts in your face, another one quickly opens.
This isn’t the time in my life where I should be sitting in an office from 8am-5pm Monday thru Friday. I need to be out in the world, seeing all there is to see. I need to find myself out there so that when I do return, I return a better version of myself that I am in love with. Hopefully then my love will be understood, appreciated, and cherished.
By leaving all this time, I don’t want people to think that I am running away or wasting the best years of my life. I am going because I know this is the best time to do this. What is meant for me will wait for me otherwise it was never really mine.

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

Author Gordon Livingston, M.D., says there are three components to happiness:
1) something to do
2) someone to love
3) and something to look forward to.

Simple enough right….No. How many people do you actually know that are happy with their lives??Something to do… is usually taken as work….but it doesn’t count if you don’t get a feeling of personal significance. Routine can take over and suck out the passion that people have when they start somewhere new. How do you stop what you do from turning into what you hate?Someone to love…need I say more. Most of the unhappiness that people feel are due to lack of love in their lives. Feelings loneliness and desperation overwhelm them to such an extent that it leaves no room for hope. Fears of the unknown take over making them vulnerable to self-deception and disillusionment. Love requires people to have the courage to become totally vulnerable to another. “Feelings of love or lack of it are noticeable in all the mundane ways we show that someone matters to us, especially in the amount and quality of the time we are willing to give them.” What then when one cause the person they love to give up on them?Something to look forward to is fundamentally part of the previous two points. When there is a goal, a purpose, a point to any situation, the end result usually justifies the means. When what we do will have a greater end result than the actual work that people put in, then it encourages us to continue. When a love is shared and a vision of a future together awaits it, then the heartaches melt away. Something to look forward to keeps us willing to get up in when it’s cold, run when we’re tired, work late when we want to go home, call when we know we shouldn't, hold back our tears when all we want to do is sob, study when all we want to do is sleep, write when all we want to do is watch T.V.Being happy shouldn't be as difficult as we make it.

Why can't we just do want makes us feel accomplished, be with the only person that makes life worthwhile, and set goals for ourselves so that thoughts of the future inspire us continue?