Stop me before I volunteer again!: September 2013

Bienvenidos to my Blog!

Hello Family, Friends, and Curious Readers,

Thanks for stopping in to see what I am up to. This is my first blog, and I hope not to bore you too much with the details of my life. But rather hope to offer you some insights into development work, the highs, the lows, and well the boring.

But before I move away for 27 months, let me give you a little information about myself before I lose a steady internet connection.

So after graduating from Boston College in 2005, I decided I wanted to learn Spanish and "save the world" so I moved to Cusco, Peru. I began by volunteering for The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco by researching and writing a small business plan for the organization. I continued to work with the organization until February of 2008, when I returned to the US to prepare for my move to Madrid, Spain for 15 months to study an International MBA at IE Business School. And now, after a year of searching for the perfect development job, and taking odd jobs in the meantime, I have joined the Peace Corps and am volunteering again. So wish me luck, and PLEASE someone stop me from volunteering again!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I wonder...

I wonder if you took a poll of all the third year Peace Corps Volunteer blogs, how many of them have fewer and fewer posts the longer they are in service. I imagine most decrease pretty rapidly due to the amount of projects we are all working on! It's been a while so let me update you... August 31st was the Small Business Development Sector's annual fundraiser with Red Emprende. It was a fancy and fun night at the Holiday Inn in Managua, with dinner, dancing, raffle, and silent auction. We had peace corps staff and volunteers in attendence, embassy staff as well as Ambassador Powers, and many individuals that work for NGOs in Managua. We raised $3400 total, which is twice as much as they raised 2 years ago!! All the proceeds will go to the 11th Annual Business Plan Competition and the 2nd Annual Congress.

I have also spent the bulk of my time working on grant applications to raise even more money for the congress, as well as working on the agenda for the event that will be held in November.

But more excitedly, I have four teacher trainings scheduled over the next 4 weeks, I plan on reaching almost 75 teachers total. Let's hope it all goes according to plan! Ok this was just a quick post to try to keep up. As soon as I have some pictures from the gala uploaded I will share them. Wish me luck with the trainings and keep on making good choices... I know I am trying to do just that!