Thursday, June 6, 2013

Happy Birthday Jesus, Happy New Year, DST Our Centennial Year! Inauguration, Happy Black History Month, Happy Resurrection Day.....

Yes all of these holidays passed without so much as a blog, photo, peep, or whisper from me on here. Well, that's about to change as this is my current attempt to resuscitate my blog. Long story short, everyday has been jam packed since November, days became regular (as in while many things have happened but they were difficult to describe/didn't seem blog worthy), and regular access to internet allowed me to connect with close fam and friends thus lessening my motivation to track my service here. But many of you have begun to ask me to blog and so here I am again, trying to sum up the past 6 months. I will fail but trying is whats important here right?

Major events that have happened: missed Founder's Day at Howard (ooooooo-ooooop!) to send people from my organization (Accion Callejera) to an education conference....which goes back to personal sacrifices for the betterment of others.....attended some camps (Chicas Brillantes Mi Futuro Brillante, (Committee of Youth Leaders for our girls gender empowerment initative/Comite de Consejo Training, Chicos Superman Regional Conference, Deportes para la Vida Regional Conference, Dominican/Haitian Relations Conference) with awesome people, coordinated some camps (Chicas Brillantes Western Regional Conference , Children and Youth in High Risk Situations)  with amaziing, resilient and selfless people. I learned to seperate myself from a very toxic project partner and I surrounded myself with the amazing youth I've been blessed to meet yet.

In my community, my youth grew into the leaders they were always supposed to be, just blessed to have been a support in their process. Some leaders were not ready for the responsibility and left, but that ended up being a necessary and important lesson for the rest of us who stayed dedicated to Wandy (my youth leader who passed away in November's thunder storm flood while trying to save a young girl's life )

The Chicas Brillantes Western Regional Conference solidified some things for me so I'll be blogging about that soon, let's just say the events that happened at that conference inspired my next steps. (BTW check out our page on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicasbrillantesrd)

I recently attended a Dominican-Haitian Relations Conference that allowed me to facilitate a lot and it took me back to my College Summit Rap Director days...it was tiring and fulfilling...creating intentions and striving to meet them, even if you have to adjust your charla/presentation in the very moment. That conference (which just happened this past weekend so some of this is very timely haha) just reminded me of the fact that whatever my next step is after Peace Corps; youth development/facilitation/mentoring of youth has to be a component; they make it all worth it!

So to be clear, in this Peace Corps volunteer journey you will have ups and downs. I heard that the ups and downs happen when you first get to your site, at the one year mark, and when you debate whether to extend or go home.... Yep they were right. Major emotions I've experienced: every last one over the past 6 months. In November I was absolutely devastated and overwhelmed after my brother (real) was in a nearly fatal car crash, my youth president dying in a flash flood storm while trying to save a little girl's life while also being recognized as the Featured Volunteer of the Month and presenting the story of my youth group to the entire PCDR administrative office. In December I was stressed with having jam packed activities, but blessed to have celebrated my birthday like 3 times with 3 different and special sets of people, gone to a resort with my triplet, and I got to go home and spend quality time with family and friends. In January I wanted to extend, in February I wanted to go home and started making plans to do such, March I was all over the place, and in April I finally found some peace....but I promise an extended story about that is coming soon :)But something that I learned in the journey is to enjoy every moment while I'm in it, make sure that any professional goals find a way to line up with personal happiness, and wherever I may find myself I already am all that I will ever need. These lessons alone, with the additional blessing of all the amazing people I have crossed paths with has made every moment where I doubted myself along this journey worth it. I am so much more resilient than I was when I came here in August 2011!!

Major lessons I've learned: Peace Corps is one big family, for better or worse...everyone will know your story even if they don't know you. I had to get used to the fact that people would come up to you and tell you info about you that you didn't tell them..... It's the way of life among PC Volunteers it's better to just embrace it and keep your sanity rather than try to buck against it.....trust me on that one lrl. I also learned that I cannot give away my whole world and leave nothing for myself... I am someone who was placed with an NGO in a large city with an 8-5 work schedule. I also had very high expectations of myself, worked hard since day 1 and so their expectations of me increased (which has been great except in the fact that workaholics don't always rest!) In learning to make more time for me, some people are not used to that and so this transition is a little difficult for them, but very healthy for me. So some things I've done for me, workout at least 4 times a week (this can be harder than you think when battling no water, no electricty, and no space in which to work out), eat lots of yogurt and mangos, sit down to drink cafe with my dona (host mom) EVERY day, hugh my host sister tight everyday and ask her how her day is so she never forgets someone loves her, BE MORE VULNERABLE && OPEN and LAUGH. It's been going well, just the mentally freeing choice of choosing me at some points when I could continue working has been great!

What I'm looking forward to in the next month: Seeing my family in less than 3 weeks, being the maid of honor in my sister friend's wedding, and having an awesome GLOW (Girls Leading our World) National Camp thats filled with all kinds of Q.U.E.E.N. empowerment and U.N.I.T.Y. :) I'm looking forward to working with the amazing group of YFCD volunteers in country and the awesome group that is to come! Wait and see!

Next time, hopefully sometime this weekend, I'll post the best of the best in photos of my service from the past 6 months. And I have a huge surprise!

Nos vemos en domingo!