Peace Corps Adventure Quest!!

Note that this is not intended as a criticism of anyone, except possibly myself.

CHARACTER INFORMATION
ENTER THE NAME OF YOUR CHARACTER:
- IdealisticYouth
IDEALISTICYOUTH, ENTER YOUR EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
- BS, natural sciences
INSUFFICIENT QUALIFICATIONS FOR PEACE CORPS ADVENTURE QUEST. YOU MUST SPEND SEVERAL WEEKS DOING VOLUNTEER WORK THAT WILL HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR MISSION IN PEACE CORPS ADVENTURE QUEST.
- But…
JUST DO IT!
(three months pass)
- Now am I qualified?
ENTER YOUR DENTAL RECORDS AND MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS:
- Here you go.
NOW ROLL THE DICE FOR YOUR COUNTRY ASSIGNMENT:
IdealisticYouth rolls dice.
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR ASSIGNMENT IN (COUNTRY)! YOUR MISSION WILL BE THE FOLLOWING: SAVE THE EARTH. ARE YOU PREPARED?
- Yes
LIAR! YOU WILL FIRST BE REQUIRED TO SPEND THREE MONTHS IN PRE-MISSION TRAINING.
- Oh, ok.
CHARACTER SUCCESSFULLY CREATED. YOU'RE READY TO BEGIN PEACE CORPS ADVENTURE QUEST!

INTRO
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a Hero, who lived in the prosperous land of “Yousa”. The Hero lived a happy, carefree childhood, frolicking with his friends in the forests and cities of his country. But as the Hero grew older, he began to learn of other lands, far away from Yousa, where the people were not happy or carefree. He heard from his elders that there were places where the people were sad and miserable all the time because they had less stuff, and gradually he began to feel that he wanted to do something to help these people in the other, less happy lands, such as (country). So the Hero set out on a quest to (country), to make everything all better for the people who lived there, so that everyone in the world could have lots of stuff and be happy, forever.

TRAINING
WELCOME TO (COUNTRY)! asd!”·$ weeble 241 lkja jork blarg?
- What?
YOUR LEVEL IN THE LOCAL LANGUAGE SKILL IS INSUFFICIENT. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU REACH LEVEL "MEDIUM". BEGIN TRAINING!
IdealisticYouth trains 12 hours.
YOU ARE READY FOR YOUR FIRST SUB-QUEST. YOU MUST GO TO THE MARKET AND BUY SOME FOOD.
IdealisticYouth goes to the market
Man: Glarble blork buy weru sok gonk mango?
- What?
Man: Mango nerk ouwen snark you buy?
IdealisticYouth buys mango.
Dire Mango: Triple threat stomach attack!
Idealistic Youth vomits
Idealistic Youth vomits
Idealistic Youth gets horrible diarrhea
IdealisticYouth loses 5 pounds
- Oh well, I didn’t want ‘em anyways.
IdealisticYouth trains some more
IdealisticYouth levels up!
YOU ARE NOW LEVEL "MEDIUM" IN LANGUAGE! YOU ARE WMERL TO BEGIN SIJ MEK IN PEACE CORPS ADVENTURE FWITZ.
- But I still didn’t understand…
SURE YOU DID. OFF YOU GO.

THE QUEST
YOUR FIRST SUB-QUEST IS TO LOCATE LOCAL PEOPLE AND GAIN THEIR TRUST. READYSETGO!
- Now this, I can do.
IdealisticYouth encounters Local Guy 1.
Local guy 1: What’s your name?
- (name)
Local guy 1: Beef rib?
- (name)
Local guy 1: Walleye?
- (NAME)!!
Local guy 1: Okay, Meester. Nice to meet you.
YOUR NAME HAS BEEN CHANGED TO MEESTER!
Local guy 1: So you’re a Hero, huh, Meester?
- Well, I wouldn’t exactly put it that way.
Local guy 2: Sure he is. He’s from Yousa. I hear everyone there lives in a marble palace and has superpowers.
- Not me.
Local guy 1: Wow, a Hero!. Hey, wanna be our friend?
- Uh…sure.
YOU HAVE MADE TWO FRIENDS!
FIRST SUB-QUEST COMPLETED.
- Wow, that was easy.
DON'T GET TOO COCKY, WISE GUY.

YOUR SECOND SUB-QUEST IS TO ENCOUNTER THE MYTHICAL LOST TREASURE OF THE PROJECT GRANT FUNDING AND USE IT TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY, FOREVER.
- Leave it to me!
Meester does essentially nothing for a few months
Engineer Man: Project Grant Funding! Getcher Project Grant funding here!
- You know where the lost Treasure of the Project Grant Funding is?
Engineer Man: Of course I do. All you have to do to find it is fill out this ancient Application Form, and you will find the mythical Project Grant Funding in four to six weeks.
Meester fills out the ancient Application Form
Engineer Man: And find the legendary artifacts “Map of the Project” and “List of Beneficiaries”
Meester finds the artifacts
Engineer Man: And prove ye worthiness in the ancient rite of “Cost Analysis”
Meester undergoes the ancient rite of Cost Analysis
Engineer Man: And provide…
- Why didn’t you tell me about all this in the first place?
Engineer Man: Your mind was not yet prepared, my son.
- So what else do I need to do to attain the mythical Project Grant Funding?
Engineer Man: To prove ye worthiness, ye must also make a “Timeline” of the “Activities” ye will undertake with the mythical Project Grant Funding. Then ye quest will be fulfilled in four to six weeks.
Meester makes Timeline of Activcities
Meester waits for six months doing essentially nothing
Engineer Man: Hearken! The format of the ancient Application Form has been updated. Ye must now fill out the Modern Application Form! Then in four to six weeks ye may obtain the mythical Project Grant Funding.
Meester fills out the Modern Application Form
Meester waits three months
Engineer Man: Hear me, meester! Ye must undergo the ancient rite of “Cost Analysis” once more, because ye failed to divide a part of the mythical Project Grant Funding in observance of the sacred custom of “Paying Me to Supervise.”
- Are you just making all of this up?
Engineer Man: Ye dare question the Engineer Man?
- Fine, I’ll undergo the ancient rite of “Cost Analysis again…”
WHOOPS, YOUR PEACE CORPS ADVENTURE QUEST TIME LIMIT HAS RUN OUT.
- What? Did I complete my quest? Did I save the earth?

- Hello?


- …Hello?

Class

Avast, rambling soap-boxing dead ahead!

Being in a third world country makes you think a lot about differences in social class and how they are expressed/reinforced. Here in Honduras, rich people do a lot to set themselves apart from the lower classes. They live not only in their own neighborhoods, but in, like, their own towns. They have their own schools, hospitals, and restaurants. They go to their own clubs (they don't mix socially with poor people). I had this somewhat explained to me when I went through training a long time ago, but mainly just being in a different country made me take a special interest in a lot of things that I hadn't thought too much about before, and that was one of them.

I began to realize how much more aware of class I'd become when I went back to the states last week. I had never thought of my family as wealthy before, but suddenly we seemed super rich. I mean, grandma has all kinds of beautiful wood furniture and a real piano in her house! Is that not the height of opulence? I was hard pressed to see even one beat-up or old car in her neighborhood of Olympia fields. All my relatives walked around the house with their personal mac laptops constantly online with the wireless internet network, loath to leave our air conditioned splendor and go outside into the muggy Chicago heat. Is this really a normal standard of living for us?

You could make the case that we're not as class-oriented in the states, and we may not be, but: those differences exist, and once you start to see them, nothing looks the same anymore. The airport is a place where we especially go out of our way to make rich people feel like superstars and everyone else feel like cattle. Seen at a departure gate in Chicago: a blue carpet ringed with gold cordons and a sign that said "special elite access" or something to that effect. Hey, why can't I walk on the special elite access carpet? Then there was the fact that literally almost every single person in my family had their freight-class flights delayed or canceled trying to get out of Chicago. I wonder if that happens to the world class business travelers? You think they get assigned the same level of importance as everyone else and bumped down when a little cloudburst rolls in?

Thinking about this kind of thing had me in kind of a pensive mood when I got to Atlanta, where I had a 12-hour layover. Long enough to justify a hotel, something I can't really afford. Neither can the majority of American travelers! So myself and at least 100 other people were stuck in - guess where - the shopping center of the Atlanta airport, trying futilely to find a way to get comfortable and sleep. This was a big, circular atrium with four stories of shops ringed around its edge and some pieces of airport art scattered around the middle and a few hard vinyl chairs. I looked all around it for a decent place to sit and found every corner occupied by sleeping travelers. So I went and checked out the Delta airlines desk at like 11 pm to see if I could get my boarding pass and go out to my gate, where there would certainly be more (and more comfortable) places to lounge. No, the well-groomed Delta representative said. Not until less than six hours before my flight. I could go relax in the atrium, if I wanted. "No seats", I muttered, turning away. There was nothing he could do, of course.

So I went and tucked myself up against a potted plant on the beautiful shiny (freezing) stone floor and tried to get some Zs using my backpack as a pillow. It didn't work very well.

Why do we put up with shit like this? In Central America, at least it's okay to be poor. There are many poor people, and they take care of each other. Almost anyobody can afford a hotel for a night if they really need one. Almost anybody can manage to find a meal if they really need one. A person doesn't have to own a car to be treated like a human being.

On the other hand, the defining superficial factor for getting respect here has more to do with the color of your skin. It may even be less pronounced in Honduras than in other countries (like Guatemala), but racial prejudices are still so deeply ingrained in the society that most people aren't even aware to the extent that they exist.

This point was driven home on the third leg of my three-airplane trip from Chicago to Tegucigalpa, when I did a miniscule puddle-jump from San Salvador. When I checked in, the person working at the TACA airlines desk printed me out a business-class boarding pass. I didn't even notice until I was getting on the plane and tried to find my seat. Probably, she was too afraid to ask me what class I was flying and look disrespectful, because of course EVERYBODY knows that all gringos are rich. After what happened in Atlanta (A lonely, depressing night by any account) it was poignently ironic and lifted my spirits quite a bit. Practically every time I board an airplane I wonder what it's like to fly first class and if I'll ever do it. Apparently, the chairs are nicer and they give you a free newspaper. Also, you get off first which means being at the front of the line to go through Immigration and Customs (my favorite perk).

Even living at the economic level of a completely normal Honduran (somewhere just above secretary and below taxi driver, or thereabouts), it would be a lie to say that I really feel the sting of discrimination here. How can I? I'm white. I've just gotten the barest glance of what it's like to be treated like a second-class citizen. Living with it all the time must be pretty hard on a person's sense of self-worth. This talk of reducing or erasing poverty in the U.S. and the world is ludicrous without assuming some kind of change in our social mentality. If no respect is ever given to the poor class, how can they respect themselves?

Putting stuff together

As this year continues, I have gradually been feeling more and more situated with regards to my current activities and my future plans, with a kind of sureness I haven't had in quite a while. This, I'm starting to realize, can be quite comforting. When I left the states and came down here, I didn't really know what to expect and I wasn't even attempting to think of my long term future, which was exciting. It's wonderful to see your adult life opening up, free of plans and constraints. But after awhile, you start to get concerned about your lack of direction. What do you want to do with yourself, really? Where would you like to be in five years? In ten years? I've learned enough by now to know that whatever those goals are, you aren't likely to achieve them without planning. So then you start to look for opportunities, see what catches your eye or your interest, and you necessarily are forced to set constraints on your own freedom in order to follow any specific path. It's a trade-off, for sure.

I had gone a long time without any clear idea what I wanted to do besides work in a scientific field. I was never real sure about it, besides the fact that I enjoy science and simply pursuing knowledge. In retrospect, I can say that the indecisiveness that has so long plagued me had a lot to do with not having enough real-world experience to base my judgments on (although, more than other people perhaps, it's also just a part of my character). Then, through the course of this year, I've finally grabbed onto the idea of wanting to be an educator of some type and I feel pretty darn good and pretty certain about it. It was an idea that before I'd always held in reserve, as a kind of "If things don't work out, then..." but I got to a point where it just seemed really appealing to me. Then, the more I thought about what my goals in life really are, the more sense it made.

I noticed from Sam's last email (some of you may have read it as well) that he's experiencing something similar to me right now, like a feeling of purpose, and I find it interesting that we've both, in our own ways, gravitated towards working with the development of youth. I'm sure he was exposed to other possibilities during his studies and time working with natural resources and tourism, and I even remember a time when he and some of our other friends talked about having their own guided outdoor adventures company or something of that nature. But I think Sam, like myself, always had a nagging suspicion that something better waited over the horizon, something worth waiting for and investigating.

A lot of those necessary constraints that are already starting to make me feel tied down again have become more defined in the past month or so, which is exactly what I was expecting would happen, but on the whole I feel pretty darn good about things. At the very least I should be extremely busy until december or so, which is how I like things to be anyways.

This month of July, I first have to go to Chicago for grandpa's funeral which is going to cut into some of my plans here but really, it can't be helped. I thought about it and feel good with my decision. After that, I need to advance as much as I can in finishing my little projects in Agua Fría (mainly the finca maps and a proposal to get state funding for an all-week middle school in Agua Fría), and try to set up the rest of this school year for my 9th graders. Starting July 30th, I will be working as an "acompañante" (helper) in the peace corp's new volunteer training program for the new group of trainees. I more or less know what to expect since I passed through that program myself two years ago. It should keep me very busy and be an excellent experience in adult education.

Between that and wrapping stuff up in Agua Fría I doubt I'll have time to catch my breath before October and my (hopeful) vacation with The Bro and return to the States. Then I need to put myself full-time into college applications (maybe find a temporary job, though that's hard to think about right now). My undergraduate grades aren't the most superest so that means I need to own it up on the GRE, which I plan to do.... I already started studying. Hopefully I'll find an interesting program with a Peace Corps Fellows school (You can get a master's degree and a teaching certificate in two years with this, even if your undergraduate study had nothing to do with teaching). Maybe I will be able to figure out more specifically what kind of environment I'd eventually like to work in.

We'll see how things work out, I guess. At least we finished the FORCUENCAS proposal, yay! They're going to review it for approval next week. If it passes I will have been a key factor in getting this coffee cooperative $35,000 to work with. :)

Love to everyone,

Gabe