oh bladi, oh blada, life goes on

Thanks, Mind, for posting the big bad news below. The Peace Corps rejected my appeal this morning, those non-allergic idiots!! Seriously, I´m disappointed but not in despair. There are lots of advantages to having the freedom now to do what I want. The big question, then, is what do I want?? So far these are my thoughts:

1. I´m not ready to go back to the States. I want to stay in Honduras or nearby(Guatelama?) so I can take advantage of what Spanish I´ve learned so far and continue to improve. Speaking Spanish will be much more beneficial upon my return to New York than speaking, say, Mongolian anyway.

2. I´d like to get an actual paying job. If that´s not possible (and it may be tough with visa and other issues), I can probably afford to keep a gig like this for another year or so, with few expenses other than room and board, and maybe a bit less travelling.

3. I´m done with teaching. I´d like to move into the community development realm, tho I´m not really sure exactly what that is. To me it seems like working in poor communities to help them develop, but I´m thinking it gets a bit more complicated than that. I´m vetoing the idea of teaching again b-c I really don´t think I´m that great at it, and I think my skills are so much better utilized elsewhere. I felt trapped in a classroom, in New York and here, constrained by tests and curriculum and the need to shut the classroom door and not deal with the bigger issues outside. I´m definitely ready to get my hands dirty working on real issues. Within community development there are lots of options, and so far I´ve ruled out agriculture b-c I know nothing about it and health b-c I don´t really like being around sick people. But with City Year I had done some volunteer management, some grant writing, training programs, event planning, financial development, project planning and other things that would probably be of use here. Time to make sure the ol´ resume is updated (and maybe to figure out how to translate it into Spanish??)

4. I need to work the connections here. I´m about to go back to that Project Honduras website, some group that holds a big conference for all the community organizations around Honduras every October in a town nearby. Perfect, right?? Hopefully I can spend some time getting ready and doing a bit of reconnaisance work on these organizations and then convince one to hire me at the conference.

So I feel like I´m bouncing back pretty well in the four hours since I got the big news. Having a few tacos, smokes and beers with friends definitely helped. I´ve given myself permission to skip the gym today, and I think after all this I might be ready for a nap!