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| Our Country Director, my training group and my Program Manager |
Since I am a big baseball fan and all you Americans are
(hopefully) buying the beer, hot dog and opening up the cracker jack (do they
sell those at stadiums anymore?) this summer, I decided to theme this around
America’s favorite sport (at least in my book).
It’s unbelievable that at this point in the game I have
almost finished my Peace Corps service in El Salvador. On July 19th,
I will have lived in this beautiful country for two years. Come August 14th,
I will ring the bell (there is an actual bell) at the PC El Sal office on the
completion of my service and become an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer).
Two years of training, practice and play time; I will end my contract.
This past week my training group and I attended our Close of
Service Conference at the beach, which our bosses, some RPCV’s and staff from
D.C. visited to help us prepare for the future as well as program feedback and
suggestions. We received a large packet full of information on all things we
have to do between now and finishing. Two words I would choose to describe this
orange packer would include: overwhelming and stressful. Unfortunately after a long waiting period of unsure up's and down's, my training group had to say an early goodbye to Miss Tricia, who had to be medically evacuated after our COS conference but had been with us from the beginning. I know we will all miss her, I hope she adjusts okay in being back home in la osah. We love you!
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| Coffee plants. |
The next few weeks will be filled with medical exams
interviews with staff, final reports in Spanish and English along with closing
out grants and saying goodbye to my community. It’s true what they say though,
the days go by so slowly, but the months seem to fly by as fast as a 100 mph
curve ball.
I have a feeling saying goodbye or “hasta luego” to
community members, friends, and my host family will be harder than I expect.
Many of you know I am not a crier. But, I have created an attachment and a life
here in La Loma; I know I will miss the details once I return home. At least,
that’s what everyone tells me.
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| Cute Newbies. |
Besides wrapping up things in El Salvador, I also need to
look ahead, what am I doing with my life?
Who will take a chance and hire me?
Where will I live?
I have been working with others and received GREAT advice in
my resume. Thank you to many friends and counselors. As much as I want that
document done, I know it will be a work in process. I am reading an amazing
book right now, by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s C.O.O. (thanks to my mom who
recommended it) called Lean In and I highly recommend it. This being said, I
welcome any suggestions, contacts or advice for job searching. I have a feeling
it will be a long process, but I am crossing my fingers, sometimes it’s all
about who you know, so let me know! :-)
I plan on traveling after my service…but I really do not
know where or for how long but I would like to return to the US by early
October.
If you are interested in meeting up sometime in September,
let me know! I know Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Cuba are potential
destinations and I would love a travel buddy. ;-)
Hope all of have a wonderful 4th of July next
week and I am looking forward to celebrating in America next year!
Goofing around with mustaches.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from El Salvador? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in El Salvador in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez