My Motivation

So here I am, awaiting my official invitation from the Peace Corps to work with a community located somewhere in Latin America. I feel that this is most agonizing because I don't know which country I will serve nor the exact date I am leaving. I know God is using this period of anticipation to teach me to have more patience and to trust Him. Since many of you may question what motivates me to join the Peace Corps, I thought I would publish the essays I wrote as part of my application to help you see why I want to serve our world.

My motivation:

My life changed significantly while visiting Guatemala. A group of twelve women from Minnesota State University, Mankato St. Thomas Newman Center decided that we wanted to do a mission trip outside of the United States for our spring break. We gathered donations of clothing to take for the San Lucas Toliman Mission as well as worked many hours of fundraising, so that we would be able to donate one week to educate ourselves on the effects poverty has on a nation by seeing it first hand and learning about the forces that cause it.
Upon our return to the United States, I began to see what I thought was important in new lights. I realized that material things are just that and belongings are not necessary to live a meaningful life. Seeing the joy and love in the hearts of the Mayan people enhanced my desire to learn a second language namely Spanish and do the best I could to become bilingual. I realized how important it is to be able to communicate and how culture plays a large role in communication and understanding one another. Although these people live in an impoverished community, they were learning how to provide for themselves by growing their own food on land the mission had obtained. By learning their way of life, their culture and accepting them as who they are, we assisted them with developing projects at the mission, so that the Mayan culture stayed alive.
I have had the advantage to see other cultures, experience them in their native regions and at my university. I am motivated to learn the uniqueness of our world cultures. I want to work to make the opportunities that have been made available to me, available to all throughout our global community. Living in Ecuador for three months was enough to see how poverty and lack of education hinders the growth of opportunities to enhance communities. After having spoken with many who have worked with those living in poverty, I have realized giving money directly to the impoverished doesn't’t solve the problem of poverty; education must follow with what to do and how to use the given money.
After these experiences and the experience of returning home, I am more than ever motivated to educate all with whom I come in contact about life abroad as well as how rich we really are here in the United States. The opportunities that I have been given motivate me to find ways to make educational opportunities available to everyone that desires to learn. I desire to be a part of the Peace Corps because I am motivated to be the change that I want to see in this world.

How I adapted Culturally:

I feel quite blessed to have the opportunities to attend university, provide for myself, make my own decisions and see some of our amazingly interesting world. I have traveled abroad to Rome, Italy and Toronto, Canada for World Youth Days in August of 2000 and July of 2002 as well as San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala in March of 2002 and Cuenca, Ecuador from August through November 2003. My travels abroad have been without my parents or financial support from them. I worked and fundraised to achieve my dreams of seeing Rome and living abroad. My most significant experience has been studying abroad in Cuenca for three months.
The weeks following my mission trip to Guatemala enlivened my mind to think about the possibilities of life fighting poverty, but maintaining the culture. I realized to begin the battle I would need to learn the language. I decided to learn Spanish, to travel by myself to another country, and learn the language through immersion. I choose to utilize the MSU Mankato Study Abroad Program, 12 weeks at a language school in Cuenca, Ecuador.
My first week was quite an adventure. On my walk home from the first day of school, I took the wrong street. I had no map and was unsure of the street name I needed. After an hour of walking and asking people where the avenue Francisco Estrella was located , a postal deliveryman assisted me home. At that time I spoke a survival amount of Spanish. I realized although I was in a foreign country, I would still be able to get where I needed; even if Iwasn'tn’t able to speak the language, I was still able to communicate what I needed.
Due to catcalls and forward advances from men, I learned quickly that I had to adapt to the Latin culture. I learned to be confident in myself and to give no attention to anyone who felt it was necessary to whistle and make inappropriate comments. I also made sure to have someone with me before I would converse with a new person I met in the city. I began making friends from all over the world, Ecuador, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, and the States. I enjoyed learning to dance, communicating in a different language and seeing how the Incan community lived.
My greatest insight was my visit with the child I sponsor. I received a warm welcoming into their home. I spent the entire morning playing, coloring reading and drawing with Erica. Their home was a one-room shack with a bed. I saw that it was all that they needed to be happy because they had one another. I began to understand even more, why God is calling me to educate others about our world community. As I realized how much this family loved me because I gave their daughter the opportunity to go to school, I realized that I could live anywhere as long as I loved the community around me.