Mothers Day Weekend

After three weeks or so, I finally feel comfortable with Niquinohomo and its surroundings. Enough so that the other aspirantes and I decided to make a weekend out of these past three days. The US isn't the only country that enjoyed a three day weekend, we got one here in Nicaragua as well. And we made the best of it, exploring the social scene of the surrounding towns, as well as getting to know the locals – both the people and the nature.

            Saturday kicked off with an early morning trip to nearby Masaya, one of the biggest cities in Nicaragau. Ron, Cassi, Michelle and I were on a quest to find a cheap football and basketball. And by football I mean soccer ball, try and keep up with the local terminology. We decided what better place to experience than the local market, and what an experience we got. We walked into the wrong entrance, and found ourselves in the food mercado, surround by an assortment of smells and different local produce, with people haggling left and right in rapid Spanish. Super overwhelming, and it took awhile to find our way to the artisan market where we eventually found a football. And in my broken Spanish, I even managed to talk the vendor down a couple cords. I can’t wait until my Spanish is better, and I can return and really try bargaining with local vendors. I've been jones-ing for a hammock.

            As luck would have it, we ran into other small business aspirantes, also doing some exploring and shopping in Masaya that morning. Like us, it was their first time, and collectively we discovered that to get back home we had to walk to a bus station probably a mile away from where we got dropped off. That really interefered with my plans to get home to watch the Champions League Final with my family. At the last minute, another aspirante, Ben, and I decided to catch the next bus, and ended up sharing a Tona and watching the first half of the game at some random highway side bar. While I was sitting in this bamboo shack of a bar, watching the game, I started to think where I would be watching the game back in the states. It hadn’t really occurred to me until that moment I was actually living in Nicaragua. Pretty crazy, right?

            We – the aspirantes in Niquinohomo -  knew that the local kids would be pumped to play football after the game, so we held our second youth group meeting after the game. Creating a local youth group is goal number three of training, I’ll explain more later. But we had about ten of 19 kids show up, and we ended up playing a small sided soccer game on the local basketball court for close to 2 hours. It’s amazing how much energy these kids have, especially in the 80 degree heat (which is a cool day mind you). Great bonding experience with the kids, and we all felt we deserved a night out afterwards, and met up with everyone in small business in Masatepe later that night.

            While enjoying the night, we decided that Sunday morning was the time to explore the Laguna de Apoyo, a pristine Lagoon that exists in the crater of a longtime dormant volcano. Along with a host family brother, ten or so of us made the trek down to the lagoon. This is us at the top:

After a 40 minute hike downhill, we were ready to jump into the lagoon in all of our clothes, and it took some serious restraint. It’s been about a month since I last went swimming and I’ve had the itch to jump in a body of water since leaving Frisco. Could you resist this on a hot day?

 The water felt fantastically cool, especially once you dove down. And it got deep quick. In a tribute to bringing the lane lines out at ECBC, I grabbed a heavy rock and just started walking along the bottom. After 10 steps I was probably 10 feet deep. After 15 steps, maybe 20. I used this time as an excuse to test out my new camera, and it works. Hello everyone!

When I returned up for air, I found most people hanging out in the shallows, soaking in the sun and working on their beach bods.

Despite being in the sun all day, we’re forced to wear pants and long sleeves, which really prevents us from getting the tan we’re all looking for. The only damper on the day was our return trip up, which ended up taking close to an hour and a half, and despite being in semi jungle, there was surprisingly little shade, so we took advantage of it when we could. Some of the aspirantes were really hurting.

And today was el Dia de las Madres in Nicaragua, a national holiday that all schools and most business take off. Mothers day is important back in the states, but it is a huge deal here in Nica, and from lunch on was a celebration with the family, celebrating all the mothers, and enjoying a beer or two here and there. I took the occasion to snap a photo of the fam and I:

Just me and the girls down here. Happy Mothers Day/Memorial Day!

Second Hand Shirt of the Week

It's not too easy to snap pictures without being too conspicous, so this will have to do for this weekend:

So picture this shirt on a 40 year old, obese Nicaraguan women, working at the local Alcaldia, or Town Hall. I couldn't breath I was laughing so hard after I asked her for directions.

Biz Na$ty

So I’ve spoken a little bit to the day to day happenings of Niquinohomo, but I’ve neglected to mention exactly what I’m doing in my 11 weeks here. Aside from language training, there’s also technical training for the small business sides of things here. For those of you that don’t know, my soon-to-be official title is Business Educator and Advisor (with a lot more emphasis on educator from what I hear). But right now I’m just un aspirante, or trainee. In order to become a full on Volunteer, I have four goals I need to accomplish during training:

1)      Cultural Integration

2)      Community Bank

3)      Youth Group

4)      Teach 3 Emprendedurismo classes

Cultural integration is pretty straight forward: can you successfully integrate into your community.

Goal 2, the community bank is a pretty interesting concept. It’s astonishing to me, but there is no concept of saving money down here, be it for a future vacation or an emergency. People just live off what they have, not thinking about tomorrow. It’s also incredibly difficult to get loans from the bank in Nicaragua. The combination of these two factors, as well as a couple others makes it very difficult for entrepreneurs to gain enough capital to start any sort of business. This is where the community bank comes in. This is an informal group of community members, preferably of the same tax bracket/income. Each week, or whatever period they choose, they put a set quota into the community bank. Everyone puts in the same amount each week, to pool their money together. The pooled money steadily grows with each period, allowing each member access to more and more money for any small business ventures. Only members are allowed to withdraw money, but like any bank, there is an interest on any loan. Although you’re “paying” interest, that money evenly divided amongst all members. The rate of defaulting on loans is extremely low, because the threat of social persecution is worse than anything an actual bank can do. After all, if you don’t pay off your loan, you’re causing your neighbor to lose money. And the return rate on these banks is very high, I think the number is 45% or something ridiculous. The banks have an end date, and the cycle begins again, to prevent the banks from getting to big for locals to manage. So to get use to the process, all the business aspirantes have created a bank ourselves. As of a last week, Bank BizNa$ty 56 is open for business.

I don’t want to bore you all with the details so it’s a little condensed, and I’ll save the other goals for another time. Email me if you want to know more. But just in case you think its all work and no play, here are a couple of photo’s that prove otherwise. We’ve started to feel comfortable and do a little exploring, and this is at the Mirador in Catarina, with the Lago de Apoyo in the background.

BizNa$ty 56

The Niquinohomo Crew: Ronaldo, Chalin, Cassi, myself, Michelle

Knocked Down a Peg or Two

Today was easily one of the lower points of the trip so far. Rarely, if ever, have I felt so overwhelmed in my life. One of our projects in training is to create a youth group. The ultimate goal of the youth group is to come up with an idea for a feasible product or service, create the product or service, sell it locally, and then compete in a competition against the other youth groups created by the trainees in other towns. There are four other groups of small business trainess in the Masaya region, and six or seven other groups of agriculture trainees in the neighboring Carazco region. I'll explain more about youth group later on, after our first meeting.

The original plan today was to stop by the local schools and put up posters advertising our first meeting for later on in the week. Little did we know, our language facilitator, Dona Gloria, had arranged for us to talk in front of a couple classes to more effectively reach out to the kids. She caught us with our pants down; all of us were completely surprised at the new assignment.

Now in a normal environment, talking up a youth group is no problem. But a classroom of 14 - 15 year old Nicaraguan kids is not what I would consider a normal environment. If you think back to your classroom when you were that age, one thinks of 20-25 kids, in a structured class room where there is at least a facade of order. That is not a Nica classroom. We're talking 50+ kids, moving in and out of their seats, constantly jabbering with the teacher succeeding, but struggling, to talk over them and constantly get their attention. Oh yeah, and they speak Spanish. Only Spanish, and at a pace that was incredibly difficult for us to understand. We made our presentation, and were lucky to get through that, stuttering and stammering the whole way through. Luckily Dona Gloria stepped in for the questions we attempted to field afterwards. Deer in headlights, we were.

The whole experience was humbling, and showed me just how much work I have ahead of me. I've made progress over the past week, but not nearly the progress I had hoped for. It's a tricky thing, learning a new language. It's not like a business concept, or a math equation which you just suddenly understand. Learning a language is going to be a long process, and I feel as though for the next two years I'll be learning. I may be conversational, and probably fluent, but I'll always be learning. Because every minute of every day is a learning situation.

"It's simple to seek substitutes for competence - such as easy substitutes: love, charm, kindness, charity. But there is no substitute for competence." 
- Howard Roark

Second Hand Shirt of the Week

This will hopefully become a new semi weekly installment on the blog. As you can maybe guess, there's tons of second hand shirts down here, the kind that people give away to Goodwill or the Salvation army, and completely forget about. Ever wonder where they end up? It seems like they end up in Nicaragua. In the future I'll try and snap pictures of them, but for now, here is the runner up and the winner:

Runner Up - An obese 40 year old Nica man wearing a BYU intramural champion T-Shirt

This week's winner: A 13 year old boy wearing a very red shirt with " Congratulations Jamie and Jared, 7-4-2007"

These guys have no idea what they're wearing.

Address Time and La Casa

For the first time in a week, all the aspirantes (trainees), both in small business and agriculture met up for some technical training today and we had a blast. Although we've only really known each other for a few days, it seems like ages. And after going through the experiences of overwhelming amounts of spanish and assimilating to cultures, everyone recieved hero's welcomes as we entered the training room today. It's amazing how after a week you can feel so close to someone, especially when you know they've been going through the same struggles you've faced on a daily basis. And we've all made plans to hang out over the weekend, and get some quality bonding time in. For all the time we spend together, much of it is focused on speaking in spanish and/or working on getting to know the town, so I'm looking forward to getting to know these guys better. But the big news is that I got a mailing address today. If you feel so inclined, I love getting snail mail and my address is:

Cuerpo De Paz

Sam Shepard

Apartado Postal 3256

Managua, Nicaragua

Central America

The mail system is pretty dicey down here, so think twice before you send anything of value. Not that I'm expecting anything of value. But for example in the past family members have sent down a new pair of shoes to a trainee/volunteer, and by the time the package gets to the trainee, the nice shoes were switched for a very worn in, old pair. Pretty hysterical if you think about it. If you do write be sure to include a return adress so I can hit you up. And on that note I got to run, but here are some pictures of my casa down here in Niquinohomo. Enjoy el fin de semana!

This is a mango tree nest to my house. I have the freshest mangoes for breakfast in the morning. The Freshest.

A Day in the Life

To put it simply things are different. Better yet, everything is different. Yet I have somehow seamlessly transitioned into this new life style. The first thing that is remarkably different is the concept of time. Essentially it doesn’t exist, and down here we have an expression for that…Nica Time. It’s the best thing in world and the worst thing in the world. On one hand, you never have to really worry about being late. There’s always something you can blame your tardiness on: the poor public transportation, the spontaneous thunderstorms, or of course the heat. But as a person who likes to operate based off of a tight time schedule, it could prove burdensome. I can only praise Nica time right now, but I have the feeling down the road it will come back to bite me in the ass.

Of course one of the most difficult things to deal with is the heart. It can be unbearable. I need to walk eight blocks or so to get from the house of my host family to my current language classes, and on the really bad days, I will have completely sweat through my shirt. Although, I do get some amusement out of it. I have found that I sweat profusely in some weird places, in particular my shins. I don’t know what it is, but besides my back being soaked through, I look down at my legs and see dark circles of sweat around my shins. Real peculiar. The heat makes it tough to really do anything, except slowly walk to and from class and consume as much water as possible. To beat the heat, I have had to make a couple of lifestyle changes.

The first one has been the time I wake up in the morning. If you want to exercise at all, you got to be out on the road before the sun has risen to high in the sky. And to do that you got to be up early. The sun is clearly visible by about 4:30 in the morning. (Consequently, it’s completely dark here by 6:30 pm. And it’s not a good idea to be doing much of anything once it gets to dark, as things get exponentially more dangerous)

So any day I plan on running, which is most days, I’m out of bed somewhere between 5:45 and 6:30, before it gets to hot. Of course when I run, I rep my fresh Road ID, just in case the worst happens. Check one out if you get a chance, they’re great. (Que pasa, OPR)  It sounds crazy to be up that early, but it’s a lot easier than it sounds for a couple of reasons. First, my door opens up to our backyard, as you can see in the below picture:

The walls do not completely connect to the ceiling, so the light streams over the top, which is reason #1 I wake up. Reason #2, and this is by far the more significant of the two, is the assortment of animals I have right in my back yard. If you look closely at a better picture of my backyard, you may be able to see the 3 dogs, multiple parrots, multiple roosters, and (by far the worst) the goat.

Once the sun comes up, the symphony begins. Good luck sleeping peacefully through all of that.

The second biggest change has been the difference in standard of living. To be perfectly hones, I would be very embarrassed to bring my host family back to my home in New Canaan. The standard is so much higher in the United States its like comparing different planets. First off, the house is completely open. Doors and windows are wide open at all times until bedtime, which is the norm around here. Screen technology hasn’t seemed to make it this far south yet, so we get tons of critters in the house: mosquitoes, geckos (that eat the mosquitos, and my favorite so far has been a murciellaga, or a bat. That was an exciting chore for my first night, capturing the bat in a trash can and flinging it outside. Certainly don’t experience that too much at home. An off shoot of that is that I sleep with a mosquito net at night, check it out along with my room:

It feels like I’m 7 or 8 years old again, making forts in my room and sleeping in them, so it’s totally cool. Don’t be too jealous. To top it off, the house, along with Nicaragua only has water at certain times. I’ve tried having it explained to me, but I still can’t make much sense of it. It just comes and goes, so we’re force to stockpile water when we do get it into large blue barrels. No running water means two things: 1) The toilets don’t flush, so we manually have to pour water in the toilets to send our leftovers down the drain, and 2) I’ve gotten used to the bucket shower. It’s not as bad as its hyped up to be, and I especially enjoy it on a hot day. It’s absolutely shocking to have such large amounts of water just dumped over your head. Personally, I haven’t minded it at all. It only proves a little bothersome after a long run in the morning.

What has been the most dramatic change for me, and don’t laugh, has been the dress code. Despite being in a third world country, I’m expected to dress business casual every day. Alright, go ahead and laugh. It seems like a strange policy because I already stick out like a sore thumb being one of the four white people in town. So wearing nice pants everyday, a tucked in button down shirt, and nice pair of shoes creates a glaring contrast between the locals and myself, as I walk down the street. But apparently Nica’s put a huge emphasis on the appearance of the teachers in the community, and I’m supposed to dress well to maintain respect. I know, I really got it tough, but I’ve never had any sort of dress code before, especially in heat like this. It’s either been a bathing suit at the beach, or whatever I felt like wearing at the office in San Francisco. But if that’s the worst thing I have to deal, with, I think I’ll be ok.

"By what conceivable right can anyone demand that a human being exist for anything but his own joy"  Gail Wynand

Spanish is Fun

Some of you may remember that textbook from 8^th grade Spanish with Senora Taylor, or as we all affectionately to referred to her as “Saggy”. Over these past couple of days I’ve been thinking of different names for that textbook:

            “Spanish is confusing”

“Spanish is hard to comprehend”

“Spanish is frustrating    “

But what I settled on is Spanish is Overwhelming. It’s been two full days now of living a la casa de my wonderful host family, the Lopez family. I’ve never stayed with a host family before, and judging by the looks on the faces of my fellow trainees, they hadn’t either. I had been looking forward to the home stay portion of training for weeks now, but it never really occurred to me what that meant exactly: living with a strange family that doesn’t speak my language. At all. That sort of dawned on everyone on the bus ride from Managua to Niquinohomo (pronounced ni-ki-no-mo), and there was a nervous apprehension in the air as we were dropped off one by one at our homes for the next three months.

The matriarch of the family is Doňa Ivonne Morales Reyes, and she is an absolute sweetheart, full of affection, and she has welcomed me into her house with open arms. It has been Doňa Ivonne that has helped me the most to guide me through my Spanish, the town, and the Niquinohomo way of life. Her family is large one, with three generations living together. I’ve had limited interactions with her husband Don Vidal, but they are very friendly when they occur. He’s always got a smile on his face, teaching me about and offering me different fruits, vegetables, and my first (and probably not my last) Nicaraguan beer, Toňa. They have three daughters whom all live in the house with them. I’ll got bottom-up, and start with the youngest Vidalia, who’s 13, and is the equivalent of freshman of high school. I didn’t think it would be possible to live with my real sister down in Nicaragua, but I find them very similar, and it’s a nice to have that reminder of home. Next up is Maria Jose, who is 22, is fresh out of the university as well, and has a job in Managua, which means I’ll unfortunately see very little of her during the week. Managua is a big commute from Niquinohomo, especially when you need to rely on the bus. The oldest of the tres sisters is Valeria, who is 25 and has two children of her own. The language barrier has prevented me from finding out the real situation with her baby’s daddy, Erik, who is a cool guy and also lives in the house with us. Both Erik and Don Vidal are not in the house much, especially during the week, so more often than not it seems like I’m the man of the house. Unfortunately, no pictures of me and the fam yet, but I’ll be sure to post soon. I’m still trying to figure out how safe the area is, and haven’t flashed out any goodies yet. Don’t want to become a target for crime right off the bat.

Only on the rare occasion that I see my friends around town, there are five of us remember, do I have the opportunity to speak English. My host family is very understanding of my poor language skills and accommodates me by speaking slowly and does a fantastic job of describing new words and verbs in laymen’s terms, but they literally don’t speak any English. So my typical day starts at 8am, when I have to walk across town for language classes for the next 4 hours, where the five of us aspirantes (trainees) get grilled by our teacher dona Gloria. After an hour break for lunch, we’re right back to the classroom, for applied learning. We go on field trips around the town, meeting different people involved in the schools, town government, and law enforcement. During that time, and when Dona Gloria has her back turned, we get to have hurried conversations in English, but they never last too long. As I return home for the day, I’d like nothing more to turn in all off and jump right back into English. (That or crack open a delicous American beer, but those aren't around for miles.) But between my interactions with the family and my tarea, the language is always around me. I’m trying to do my best to describe my day and not to make it sound like I’m not complaining. What I’m going through is exactly what I want and what I expected. I guess though I though I would wade into it, rather than just jump right in and hold my breath. I just keep reminding myself that it is only day 3, that it can only get better, and that within a week or two, I’ll be managing a lot better. It wouldn't be a great accomplishment if it wasn't difficult. Got put in the work, right?

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Bienvenido de Nicaragua

Bienvenido Amigos!

After only 21/2 hours after leaving Miami, our plane successfully touched down in sunny and hot Managua, Nicaragua. It takes longer to fly coast to coast, so it didn’t really hit me that I had just landed in a third world country that in terms of development is decades away from the level of development we experience on a day to day basis. When you’re sitting at home or talking in class, a third world countries seem so far away. It was shocking to discover that kind of poverty in just our backyard.

But before I thought about all that, before I could take in anything, I felt the heat. After living in relatively cool areas, you forget just how hot 90 degrees is. At least I did. It engulfs you. You naturally start moving a little slower to conserve energy. But even before I got through security, I had almost completely sweated through my shirt. A great first impression for the current Volunteers meeting us outside. To battle the heat, you try and drink as much water as possible to stay hydrated, but there is a real lack of drinkable water for us gringos. Unless it comes from the bottle, or we boil it our self, it’s not there, so conservation is key. Lucky for us, we’re staying at a compound in “new” Managua that provides us with all the fresh, drinking water we need, so as not to upset our un-acclimated stomachs in our first couple days. According to current volunteers, after a couple bouts of diarrhea and upset stomachs, you can drink some of the tapwater around the country. Lucky us!

These past couple of days we have spent as a group and it had the feel of being on a YG mission trip. It's a semi large group, we spend every minute of the day together, and and even fall asleep on the floor of the airport together. YGers, look familiar?

During these days at the retreat, the 47 of us have continued to get to know each other, become medically prepared, and begin basic training. Training so far has started at 8am and continued through the day until about 4am with various breaks. The “charlas” or sessions as they are know have been boringly basic. I feel as though I’m back in Professor Szackmary’s International Finance class, struggling to keep my eyes open. It has mostly been brief history of the Peace Corps in Nicaragua, Welcome activities and generic ways how to stay healthy and safe. I know my mom is thinking right now how could you be following asleep during lectures about health and safety, but I assure you, that it is all super basic, and the more important charlas come later in the weeks.

What has been a better resource for getting to know the in's and out's of Nicaragua, as well as our future jobs, has been the current volunteers who greeted us at the airport. They’ve been extremely helpful in giving us hints on how to get by, and answer the questions you would feel awkward asking an administrator.

What has been fun is our free time in the afternoons and after dinner. I’ve met a great group of guys within the group simply from playing pick up basketball in the compound before dinner. The sun is still pretty high in the sky, so within minutes our t-shirts have soaked through with sweat. And at the risk of sounding like a complete meat head, you bond with someone when you sweat and get dirty together, and the bond you form as teammates carries over off the court. Ice breakers work great, but basketball worked better for me. I think I can now name all 47 of us trainees. And here is a picture of all 47 us, on our first day trip into Managua:

(Scratch that, I wish I could say all 47 of us. Unfortunately one girl already dropped out this morning. It’s a shame. The official stat is 10% of your class drops out, but I didn’t expect it that quickly. So Nica 56 is already one down.)

We did have a great afternoon in our recent day trip, as most of us were starting to develop cabin fever after not being able to leave the compound. Although once a very prominent Central American capital, a monstrous earthquake struck the city in mid 70’s demolishing it. Rather than clear away the rubble, the people migrated outwards and as a result the city is divided between the new and older areas. But that doesn’t means it isn’t beautiful, and we got a taste of the beauty Nicaragua has to offer:

I originally meant to post the above yesterday, but the lack of internet prevented me from doing it. The last day of charlas has been much more exciting, and I have found out where I will be spending the next couple months, as a result of my language test and personality. My self and fellow business development trainees Chalin, Ron, Cassie and Michelle will be taking our talents to Niquinohomo, Nicaragua, just south of Masaya. I'm pressed for time now, more to come on my host family and langauge experience during my next post. Hasta Luego.


"Where we're going, there are no roads"
                                     -Doc Brown

The First Step

This day marks exactly a year since my graduation from Richmond, and I think it is pretty fitting that today is also the day that I took my first real step toward Nicaragua and the Peace Corps.

After a wild, sleep deprived weekend in Richmond, I woke up this morning in Washington, D.C, the site of my first orientation and departure. For those of you on the 2100 block who let me crash with them, and for those of you who made it down to Richmond, I thank you sincerely. This was the perfect way to spend my last weekend in the states, full of witty banter, love, and laughter. I wouldn't have spent it any other way. So much fun in fact, that I was anxious and worried about my upcoming day. I felt so comfortable and had so much fun with everyone I saw this weekend, that I started to second guess my decison. But in these past weeks, I've been second guessing myself a lot.

But the orientation today changed that, and it was here at the conference room of a Holiday Inn that I got to meet the 47 other Peace Corps volunteers that are leaving for Nicaragua with me tomorrow. I had it in my head that people were going to be prissy, uptight, and by the book (I don't know why), but I was happily mistaken. Of the 47, about half have graduated within the past year, and the majority of the rest are in their late 20's to early 30's. But there are also a couple of wild cards in the mix, with 2 men in their mid 50's. I can't imagine how they must feel being surrounded by us young whipper snappers. The ratio of men to women is about 60-40, and their are even 2 married couples in the mix. And the vibe that I got from nearly everyone has been reassuring and even exciting. Right off the bat I was able to identify with many of the guys and girls my ages, bonding over soccer, music, and college basketball (and how briefly Richmond, VA was at it's center).

After 5 hours of ice breakers and group events, a couple of us went out to grab our last American meal for awhile. And what is more American than a good ol' fashion cheeseburger and a Anchor Brewing Company Liberty Ale? Absolutely nothing. Knowing I wouldn't be eating or drinking like this for awhile, I savored every last bit of month. In a word, delcious.

This could be my last post for awhile now, as I am only hours away from offically leaving the country, and don't know what my internet accessiblilty will be in the coming weeks. And as wierd as it is to say, by this time tomorrow, I'll have been in Granada, Nicaragua for almost 12 hours. I take my first step towards my big adventure in the morning, and I need to rest up. For those of you worried about the next time you see me (and I'm worried about seeing you all too) just remember it's not goodbye, it's only see you later.

"And yet, and then someday, this new road will be the old road too."

Welcome and Farewell

Welcome friends and family to the introduction of Nic of Time, for what will be an account of my life and experiences with the Peace Corps while living somewhere south of San Diego. And by that I mean Nicaragua, sspecifically Masaya, Nicaragua for the next three months.

Unfortunately, the creation of this blog means it's time for me to say farewell to all of you, which has not been easy for me. In fact it's almost been stressful. In the limited time I had at home, I spent most of it running around trying to see and say goodbye to as many people as possible. I apologize for anyone I missed. I've found that you can tell a lot about a person from the goodbye you get from then. For me, it has been the goodbye where I've realize who you're true friends are, those you know you can always count on, and if you will ever see that person again.

My departure is a long time coming; almost exactly a year since I graduated from Richmond. A year I have fondly referred to as my Gap year. To pass the time I did it all: was a carpenter's apprentice in Martha's Vineyard, was Junklugging with the Kid in the fall, exploring the US in the winter, and living (and surfing) out in San Francisco these past three months. And as much as I hated waiting in limbo to hear back from the Peace Corps, I wouldn't of traded anything in the world for the experiences I've had in the past year. Well maybe my time with the Junkluggers, the worst job ever. As someone reminded me when I was at a low point, I got to see places and meet people I never would have otherwise, and have experiences I never want to forget. This wise man once told something I will never forget as well:
              "Live in the moment, because it's the only we got"
And that is exactly how I plan on living these next two years. Every week, every day will bring a new adventure. New adventures that I will welcome with open hands, so I can truly experience a new lifestyle, something completely out of my comfort zone. And to do so, I'm not bringing much with me. In fact I'm bringing exactly this much stuff:

It's not much, but I've never been a heavy packer. Thanks to a combo of the the peace corps packing list, Dr. Sals, and Josh Flynn, I think I actually have everything that I need in these two relatively small bags. A couple pairs of pants, shorts, a good shell, lots of t shirts, a solid knife, and a camera. And of course the essentials: my soccer football cleats, a disc, and a copy of the Fountainhead. Essentially these two bags are my life for the next two years! So with just the bag on my back I'm taking the first step into my adventure, which happens to be DC and Richmond for the weekend, before actually leaving at the crack of dawn Wednesday morning. 

And I must give credit where credit is due: I'd like to thank Rachel Wildfleur for coming up over the name. If we hadn't been in a loud mexican restaurant, who knows what the name of this blog could've been!

So Welcome and Farewell.

"Not all those who wander are lost"
                                     -J.R. Tolkien