Resume and Aspiration Statement are in!

Well, I finally turned in my aspiration statement and resume to the Cape Verde desk at Peace Corps. Though the aspiration statement is asking me pretty basic questions “what are your expectations for service?” “how do you plan to adapt?” and “what are your personal and professional goals?” it still took me a few days to get through it. There are times in my life when I feel really good about what I’m writing, but I haven’t quite felt that I’ve been ‘in the zone’ these past few days. I think it’s just general exhaustion with work that hasn’t allowed my mind to be focused.

I actually saw that one of my soon-to-be fellow PCV’s had actually posted his aspiration statement online (along with his original cross cultural experiences statements and motivation statements). I purposely avoided reading that entry, since I know if I saw what someone else had written, it would have immediately become harder for me to write mine. But now that I’m done, I think I’ll take a quick peek…

Hmmm, our basic points were pretty much the same. Now I’m really glad that I didn’t read his statement beforehand. The sentiments were similar, and if I had seen his beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have been able to find my voice, since his words would have been echoing in my head.

But, yeah, I’m sure my answers were fine, and it’s not like they’re going to kick me out because of what I say in my aspiration statement. They say they need it to be able to tailor pre-service training to people’s specific needs. I think it’s also a way to see how much effort their going to have to put into puncturing the idealism of their Volunteers. :-) Lucky for me, working for the past three years in a movement that I’m very passionate about has shown how frail that bridge can be between idealism and the reality of the situation. Though I haven’t fallen into outright cynicism, I’ve learned to mold my idealism so that’s it’s less of a burden. I’m still searching for that balancing point between the way things are, and the way they could be.

I also went to an event at Peace Corps Headquarters called “Recognizing Our Future Volunteers,” which was for nominees, invitees, parents of PCV’s and others. I think events like this are going on all over the country. Makes sense they would do it in the late spring, since I heard that summer is when Peace Corps sends out the most volunteers. Gaddi Vasquez, the director of Peace Corps, said a few words, as well as the head of the Mid-Atlantic States (where I had my interview) and the head of the National Peace Corps Association. The only really interesting fact I heard from Vasquez is that the fastest growing minority group in Peace Corps are Americans of Asian descent. Woohoo for me!

Vasquez also told a story about a Japanese-American PCV who had lived in the U.S. for like 40 years, and tried to join the Peace Corps in his 60s. He was denied because he wasn’t an American citizen. So, he became a U.S. citizen, specifically so he could join the Peace Corps, and he ended up as a PCV in Africa. The story’s cool by itself, but it’s also neat that Buttons happened to be in this guy’s group in Namibia! I know this because she was telling about him a few weeks ago at happy hour! I’ll have to let her know tomorrow, I’m sure she’ll get a kick out of it.

Here’s a random story about life in Cape Verde that I found online tonight.

I now have realized that Netflix does not deliver movies fast enough for me to be able to finish Day 3 of “24” before I leave on Monday morning. So, I can either suffer for two weeks, not being able to see what happens at the end, or I can go to local video stores to try and rent the DVD’s I need, and then take those off of my Netflix queue. Yeah, I know, I'm obsessed.