Stop me before I volunteer again!: November 2012

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!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello World,

First of all I apologize for abandoning my blog again! But I hope that you will forgive me after I tell you what I have been up to! But first of all, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a wonderful day and were able to spend time with your family and friends in whatever part of the world you encounter yourself.

This year, I felt even more thankful than normal as my time and life in the peace corps Nicaragua has taught me a lot about how fortunate I have been in my life so far, and how thankful I should be and am for all of the blessings I have received. I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with some amazing people, fellow peace corps volunteers, volunteers with project Mana, staff from the US Embassy, and the Ambassador herself! That's right! The Ambassador of the US in Nicaragua was gracious enough to open her doors (and refrigerator) and fed about 40 people total! The food was amazing, the company was excellent, and it made me incredibly thankful for the time I have spent here in Nicaragua. I hope to be able to post some pictures soon of the lovely dinner.

In the meantime, let me tell you about the most amazing, awesome Small Business Plan Congress and Competition that I was privileged to attend and more importantly coordinate! We held the 10th annual National Business Competition and the 1st ever and hopefully-to-be-annual Congress at the Hotel Camino Real in Managua and in my opinion, as well as the Ambassador's, it was a great success! The students and teachers that attended learned a lot and in most people's opinion, the quality of the presentations on competition day was much higher than the previous years.

I will try to write more soon, but the triptofan (sp?) from the turkey and the exhaustion of the previous week's worth of work has made me very tired. So I will leave you with some pictures of the event, with the intention to post more soon!

Love you all! Make good choices!