Two trips to South America in one summer. A bit ridiculous, yes. But when an opportunity to pursue your dream arises, you cant just turn your back on it. You blow your summer savings on the flight, review your spanish grammar, and hope for the best. You read silly idealistic books like The End of Poverty because you (naively?) believe that you can actually make a difference in 2.5 weeks. And you ignore the butterflies flapping around in your stomach because mom and dad are worried enough already.
At school, I am part of an organization called Penn International Business Volunteers. Every summer, they organize trips for students to aid international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This summer, they organized two trips--one to India to work with Video Volunteers and one to Peru to work with CIDE (Center for International Entrepreneurial Development). During the schoolyear, I wanted to go on one of these trips, but I was planning on obtaining a professional office internship. Unfortunately (but really fortunately), the internship plan fell through and I found other ways to occupy my summer. I spent the month of May celebrating my sisters high school graduation, the month of June studying Spanish and sightseeing in Argentina with my friend Shannon, and the month of July working as a nanny and assistant to a caterer. I was happy with how my summer turned out-- spending days at the pool and reading books while I nannied was much more fun (and much more profitable) than an administrative office internship would have been.
I was looking forward to spending the month of August relaxing and catching up on my reading, but I was also getting a bit nervous at the thought of watching my friends go off to school as I waited another before heading back to Penn. But after checking my email one day in mid-July, my lazy August suddenly changed into a crazy jam-packed end of summer.
I received an email from the aforementioned group, Penn International Business Volunteers, who were asking for more people to participate in the trip to Chiclayo, Peru. The dates coincided perfectly with the end of my nannying job and the beginning of the school year and the trip was working with a non-governmental organization that uses microfinance to help women start businesses and escape poverty. Basically, this was my dream job presenting itself to me at a perfect time in an interesting place. How could I not go on this trip?
Although it was a bit ridiculous to pay for two airline tickets to south america in one summer, I wanted to work with an international nonprofit ASAP to decide whether the ngo career path was for me or not (if i find out that it isn't, then i can start focusing on other career ventures this coming semester). So my summer savings have been blown on this trip, but I'm seeing it as a worthwhile investment...
The fateful coincidences that brought me here and that continue to appear have reassured me that I made the right decision to come. For example: at the gate for my Lima flight, there was HUGE piece of artwork made out of thousands of business cards. White business cards served as the background and colored business cards spelled out this quote by Roman poet Sextus Propertius: "Let each man pass his days in that endeavor wherein his gift is greatest." I'm hoping that in the next two weeks I'll find out whether my talents match this endeavor...
The flight from Atlanta to Lima was 6 hours. Mostly slept, half of the time falling into the aisle and the other half of the time falling into the lap of the guy sitting next to me. Quite embarassing. Arrived in Lima (which is on Central time, even though we travelled southeast, strangely enough), recovered my bags and hung out in the food court for 9 hours. I was paranoid about getting robbed or something so I wrapped my bags around me and tried to nap. Slept on and off, used coffee to keep me awake and read through the rest of the night. Eventually made it to 850 when my flight to Chiclayo departed. Flew to Chiclayo, met my teammates, drove through the impoverished town of Chiclayo and dropped our stuff off at the hotel. Then went to a business luncheon with the leader of CIDE, Oswaldo, and some of his business partners. Learned a bit more about what we're going to be doing and Oswaldo shared an inspiring quote with us:
"A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone but ranges through the world, anxious to bless the whole of the human family"
ugh so tired. none of this is coherent...will write better later.
hasta luego,
Lindsay
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