The Process

So I've shared most of my reasons for wanting to join the Peace Corps. One underlying reason I left off is that if I didn't take this opportunity to join the Peace Corps at this point in my life, I would regret it. Regret. For who knows how long. Even if things don't live up to my wildest fantasies, at least I'll be able to say I experienced it and I'll never regret doing so. Especially since I am going to combine an MBA program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) with the PC experience. So since I made up my mind to join, here's what happened next:

• March 2009: Start PC application.

• October 2009: Submit MIIS application.

• January 2010: Complete PC application. It doesn't really take 10 months, I spent lots of time considering, reconsidering, and thinking it over.

• February 2010: Start Peace Corps' Master's International Advanced Entry Master of Business Administration (PCMI advanced entry MBA). Yeah, long name. Fortunately, MIIS had a spring start and put me on the advanced track due to my finance degree. Oh, and it's in Monterey, CA.

• March 5, 2010: PC interview.
• March 10, 2010: Nominated for Peace Corps assignments leaving in Jan/Feb/March 2011

• April 2010: Receive medical, dental, and legal forms.

• June 2010: Complete medical, dental, and legal forms.

• October 2010: Follow-up PC interview. I find out I'm headed for Central American in February.

• November 2010: Receive official invitation to serve as Business Advisor in Honduras! Departs February 23.

• December 2010: Complete academic portion of MBA at MIIS.

• February 23, 2011: Staging in Atlanta, GA. Think of it as a welcoming and intensive orientation.
• February 24, 2011: Fly to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to start 3 months of Pre-Service Training (PST). Language, cultural, and technical training. During this time, I'll found out where my real assignment is and get an idea of what exactly I'll be doing.

As you can see, it's a long process. Peace Corps received roughly 10,000 applications each year and sends roughly 40% of them and less than that complete the 27 months of service. The application process itself seems to foreshadow what Peace Corps itself will be like. Things move slowly. There are lots of steps. You have to talk to multiple people. You have to be patient. Maybe they think if you can make it through the application process, you have a chance at surviving the next 27 months of the unknown. But I'll tell you the anticipation never gets old and finding out that I'd be leaving for Honduras was one of the most exciting days of my life.

If you're interested in the Peace Corps, you can check out the Peace Corps page I created (and will update further) or check out www.peacecorps.gov. Remember, it's never too late to join!

Why the Peace Corps?

When people ask me why I decided to join the Peace Corps, it's not always an easy answer. The real answer is I have a lot of reasons. They seem to change depending on the day and which direction I decide my life should take (as if I have any idea, or control). Some deep, some shallow, here are my reasons for joining:

• I want to do something great with my life.

I've often asked myself: what makes great men (and women) 'great'? From Alexander the Great to Winston Churchill, Jesus to Mother Teresa, Gandhi to Rosa Parks, da Vinci to Alfred Nobel, Mozart to Ella Fitzgerald, Queen Elizabeth to Martin Luther King Jr., Cleopatra to Abraham Lincoln, Plato to Emerson, Newton to Einstein, Socrates to Shakespeare, Michelangelo to Monet, Nelson Mandela to JFK, and countless more... What is it that they possess that I do not? What can I do to be like them - to change the world?

• I want to see the world.

I'm not sure if we all have that little voice inside of us, that adventurous spirit telling us to let loose and take off, set sail and see the world. Well, I do. We all have a need for comfort and security, especially as we grow wiser, but while there's still foolishness in my blood I feel the urge to shirk off the responsibility and comfort of this American life and travel to some other world. Some other life. And now's just the time. Young, restless, unemployed, homeless and single. I was feeling so adventurous, I decided to leave the Preferences section on my Peace Corps application blank!

• I want to be like Bear Grylls.

OK, I said some of them weren't that serious. This one's not that serious, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. I have a small confession to make: I love survivor shows. Not the reality ones where people get voted off islands. I'm talking about the hardcore machete-swinging, bug-eating, fire-building, bamboo-rafting, rabbit-slaying, real manly surviving! I know Peace Corps isn't the same when it started, which means it's been effective. I'll be living in some form of civilization. This I recognize. But still, can't I have a little bit of my own Man vs. Wild? I'm reminded of another manly reference: Fight Club. When Brad Pitt asks Edward Norton, "How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight? I don't wanna die without any scars. So come one; hit me before I lose my nerve." While I'm not condoning physical violence, I too don't want to die without any scars - stories - from a real encounter with life. So let's go before I lose my nerve!

Special thanks to Tim for helping me get started with this one by hooking me up with one of these great tools. It will soon see action. 

• I want to work in international economic development.

Microfinance, specifically. It's a term with a lot of definitions. Basically, it can be described as banking for the poor. There's a book by a similar name, Banker to the Poor written by Dr. Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner that discusses his cognitive dissonance regarding the economics he teaches at University while the poor live just beyond the schoolyard. Yunus devises a theory that these people simply need access to affordable credit as an opportunity for economic freedom, a theory which he then proves with his creation of the Grameen Bank. The field has since exploded into hundreds of microfinance institutions (MFIs) across the developing world. I read this book several months before graduating with my finance degree and found myself utterly fascinated with the idea and had a desire to impact the world's poor and disenfranchised through this channel. The best part is it takes advantage of my finance background, passion for social injustice,  and my urge to travel (since the greatest need is outside the US). And most positions within MFIs require 2+ years of development experience, preferably bilingual with an MBA. Perfecto!

• I want to help people.

The typical response. It sounds so cliché when I say it, I almost prefer mentioning all of my other reasons. However, this is one of those deeper reasons that stays with me despite what day of the week it is or what I think I want to do with my life. Even though I got a degree in finance, I don't believe that money is equivalent to happiness. I feel that many people become worried about making money, "providing" for a family, paying back school loans, or whatever that they pursue economic prosperity, yet lose the life they've longed for. My personal theory goes on to say this is the cause of mid-life crises, where people suddenly realize that making money or pursuing a career at 80+ hours a week doesn't seem to fulfill them. Now I don't think that these two ideas are necessarily mutually exclusive. In fact, I hope to combine them in my future (but not the 80+ hours part).

• I want to find out who I really am.

This is similar to the Fight Club reference, but it's more about the soul-searching spiritual experience I anticipate having with all of the free time and none of the distractions. Moses spoke with a burning bush on a lonely mountain. David connected with God surrounded only by sheep. And Jesus often withdrew to a secluded place to pray and hear from God. Most of us live noisy and distracting lives here in the States, always on the go, music in our ear, energy drinks and fast-food to eat while we do it. I hope to find this time of quiet and truth-seeking in the mountains of Honduras. Maybe you have a place you go regularly, I typically prefer my closet, in which case I would encourage you to spend some time there soon. If you don't yet have a quiet place of solitude, I encourage you to seek it out and spend some time in your own soul search.

"Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed—doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language.

But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps—who works in a foreign land—will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace."

~John F. Kennedy

Adam

I've Been Here Before

Once upon a time a little boy barely out of middle school was  invited on a grandiose adventure with his grandfather. His grandfather had been long admired for always bringing back coins from wonderful and far-off places. Travelling was a part of the job description, because he was a missionary. How envious the little boy was, always dreaming of seeing these places firsthand, and now, the invitation was before him: a one-week mission trip to a pueblo right outside San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There, the community was in need of help building a second story on the little school house, painting the blank cinder block walls of the inside with bright, cheerful colors, digging a cesspool and septic drain field for sanitation, and spending time encouraging the local church.

Nearly a decade later, I realize this was a pivotal moment where God opened my eyes to see a world beyond my own. It's also the point when I realized I need to learn Spanish! My life has been so comfortable. I'm able to eat whatever, and whenever, I want. We even have a refrigerator to hold all of the food we can't eat! I can drive here or there or go to a park or watch TV all day. I only need to work 5 days a week and certainly not while I'm attending school (though, of course I do!). We have a nice house and even a yard - in fact, two! Have I ever felt the pangs of hunger? Only when I'm fasting. Have I ever been hopelessly sick? Only until the clinic opens in the morning. Have I ever longed to leave my life and travel far away where I thought things might be better? Alright, maybe this one is true. I'll admit my reasons for joining the Peace Corps are partly selfish. I want to be a world traveler, speak other languages, know a different life. Having been there before, it's made me appreciate this one so much. But also, being here has made me appreciate something there.

So why didn't I post a picture of the giant cesspool we dug? Though I do appreciate good septic systems, there was another moment I remember more clearly about that mission trip. We spent our final day seeing the beauty of Tela, Honduras, one of the most stunning beaches I have ever seen. It's this picture that I took 10 years ago (with nothing more than a disposable camera) that reminds me what a beautiful country Honduras is and reminds me to appreciate the something there. Which now I certainly do, having seen the rest of the 4" snowfall melt away here in Seattle yesterday, trying to imagine it's a warm sandy white beach welcoming me back to its shores. It's odd isn't it? That foreign country I set foot in so many years ago is the same country I will now call my home for the next 27 months. God does things like that - those little things that no one else thinks about, but you see how meaningful they are to you.

I lay in bed staring at this picture. I've always wanted to be there again. I'm so thankful for the Peace Corps and the opportunity to live in this magical, adventurous place - to live a magical, adventurous life! What a blessing!

"Hope deferred makes the heart grow sick,

But desire fulfilled is a tree of life."

Adam

What is "El Ritmo de Cambio"?

I spent several days thinking of what to name this blog. How could I pick something now that still represented me and my perspective in two years? Let alone, in another country?

As many of you already know, I have been accepted to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. I leave on February 22, 2011 for Tegucigalpa, the capital, where I will spend 3 months in language, cultural, and technical training. Sometime during training, I will be given my assignment - that is, the village that will become my new home for the next two years. With all the uncertainty this transition brings, it's odd how it will be one of the most stable times in my life since high school. Even in college, people were constantly coming and going, and I moved to a different building/house/room/bed every year, not to mention spending every summer in a different place.

So what does this have to do with the name of my blog? As I said, I tried to find something that represented the 'me' now, and the 'me' in the future. In Spanish, el ritmo de cambio typically refers to the "rate of exchange" (currently 18.89 Honduran Lempiras to the US Dollar) which says a lot about me and my interests in finance, specifically microfinance, and currency and the role I will serve in business development. The other meaning for el ritmo de cambio is "the rhythm of change" which I feel encapsulates the next several years of my life, if not the rest of it. Life is always changing, but there is something to be said for the rhythm of those changes. Sometimes we're ready for change and sometimes we resist change. But change certainly comes whether internally - in our ability to adapt to circumstances, or externally - the circumstances themselves changing. The aspirations I have to serve in the Peace Corps inherently hold a hope for a change - a positive change in Honduras that will undoubtedly be shadowed by the internal changes I will experience. Nonetheless, the ritmo catracho (Honduran lifestyle) is notoriously slow; the same implications for my ritmo de cambio.

My hope is that this blog will chronicle my thoughts, feelings, and experiences and provide y'all (you guys) some insight into my life. Please feel free to ask me questions and comment as we go through these next 27 months together.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you.


Adam