Setting Up Me

Well hello and welcome to my blog. It means a lot to me that you are visiting this blog. Little did you know that by doing this you are in fact helping me achieve one of the three goals of the Peace Corps - to help Americans develop a better understanding of foreign people and cultures. In return for your generosity, I´ll try to thank you by keeping this blog interesting. I´ll try to focus on ideas, impressions and relationships rather than the minutiae of my day-to-day schedule (which at times will be rather boring). Hopefully then, you can accompany me in the project of cultural exchange and interaction which I am on even if you can´t be on the ground helping people here in this beautiful country of Guatemala.

I want to set out for you some of my personal goals for the 27 months that I will be "living poor," as well as encountering the "living poor" in the rural communities in Guatemala.
Goals:
1. To become the person I want to be. I have several ways of expressing this: to live out my convictions (thus the title "living poor" - this in opposition to the "abstract poor" which I´ve studied to death at Brown. Now I can be meeting with real people and experiencing real life, interacting with humans instead of with theories), to follow the example of Jesus as best I can in my life, or to develop and practice certain values in my life.
I made a list of some of these values. You are all welcome to ask me to make sure that I am cultivating these values.
a. From accomplishment-focused to "being"-focused
b. From dependence on material and physical pleasures to independence from them
c. From idea- and task-focused to relationship-focused
d. From independence to dependence on God
e. From self-centered to other-centered, to compassion
f. Patience

2. To become a part of my community. I could write so much on this, but my internet cafe time is running out. Suffice it to say that this is a requirement of liberation theology and Christianity in general, to be incarnational - that is, enter in to the same reality of those that you are trying to help. We don´t help with paternalism from a comfortable distance but rather through proximity establish trust and a sense of brotherhood with others. We follow the example of Jesus who mucked it up with regular working folks and even outcasts of his community. Not to mention that this goal is the biggest feature of the Peace Corps´ methodology, essential to success in other areas, and something which the Peace Corps trains you well to do.

3. To help out the town at my site. Much more to come on this later. I´ll be putting a lot of energy toward helping out in whatever way I can, of course, but I am also trying to be realistic about what I can really accomplish. It is likely that whatever I am actually able to do will come in the second year of service, so I won´t expect much from the beginning of service.

Well, I am in the town of the Peace Corps office and am at day 2 of living in Guatemala. Many days lie ahead, but I hope that these goals to guide them! Again, thanks for reading. Feel free to comment or hold discussions. Like I said, you are a part of this Peace Corps mission.