“Please raise your right hand and repeat after me,” Linda Taglialatela, US Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean said. We raised our hands and recited the oath of becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer, thus officially swearing-in and beginning our service as full-fledged volunteers. One at a time, we made our way across the stage [...]
*Knock *Knock The bus veered to the side of the road while the conductor slid the door open. Squeezing past, my host brother Dexter and I climbed out of the bus, which again is really just a large van. Standing on my toes to stretch out my legs, I looked around to find myself on [...]
“Wanna go for a walk?” my host sister, Satera, asked as I ate dinner on the balcony of my homestay. “Sure,” I responded; pleased to have the opportunity to walk around and orient myself with the area. Together we walked down the steep drive to the main road, turned right and began heading up the [...]
Have you ever woken up in the morning from an incredibly vivid dream and wonder, “Did that really just happen?” It was early May, I had just graduated from Capital University and moved back home. I had about a month to prepare for the Peace Corps by condensing my life into two suitcases. Consequently, I [...]
Dear EC89, Seven weeks ago, I arrived in Miami not really knowing what to expect. You all were just profiles on Facebook until I began meeting each one of you face to face. I, like many of you, had just come from a farewell party where I said goodbye to all my friends, family, and [...]
I wander aimlessly around the training center, laptop in hand, hoping to connect to the wifi just long enough to find a copy of a short story. A dozen or so of the other trainees were scattered throughout the room in the late afternoon. Some were writing stories on flipchart paper, others typing worksheets, and [...]
A rush of rain on the tin roof roused me from my sleep. Reaching over I touched my phone to see it list 5:43-two minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. I quickly sat up and shut off the alarm so I wouldn't hear that dreadful sound so early in the morning. The [...]
A car honked as it drove past, veering over a non-existent center line on the road to get around me. I paused to turn and watch the car go past me, acknowledging his courtesy honk letting me know he was passing. It’s a habit of pedestrians I noticed almost immediately upon arriving here. There are [...]
The sun was beating down so that even the shade of the front porch couldn’t provide relief from the afternoon heat. I stood up and went inside, turning on the stand-up fan in my room and opening the windows. At least with the fan I can keep cool while I lay down on my bed. [...]
The plane accelerated on the runway and I held my breath. I knew that the moment the wheels lifted off the ground at Miami International Airport, only time would tell when I would set foot on American soil again. The plane lifted off and goosebumps ran down my arms because it was then that my 27-month [...]