Post Peace Corps

Finishing Peace Corps feels much like graduating from college; everyone is asking you what you will do next. Some are applying for grad school, some are looking for jobs, and some have no clue and just plan to move back in with their parents (I fall into the third category). Some of you may have heard a little rumor that I would be going to Africa next year to extend my Peace Corps service…Well, I did actually apply to extend to Africa for one year but due to budget issues they cannot accept transfers at this time (or in the foreseeable future). So, what now? Every year USAID (United States Agency for international Development) offers two internship positions in the Strategic and Program Support Office in Tegucigalpa. The positions are only available to Peace Corps Volunteers from Honduras who have finished their service so I am considering applying to gain more experience in international development. We shall see…


Throughout service volunteers come up with grand plans to travel through all of South America or to travel back to the US by land, but one by one they loose steam and many of my friends have decided just to fly straight home without traveling afterward. I personally have wavered back and forth a great deal. After my Guatemala trip I was totally inspired to travel afterward, but after my Nicaragua/Costa Rica trip I was sick of all of Central America and didn’t want anything more to do with it. Then after being re-inspired by the COS Conference I am now interested in traveling again. So, regardless of whether I stay in Honduras or not I will have a few months off to travel and see family. I plan to go from Honduras through northern Guatemala, Belize and Mexico, and then fly home from Cancun. Sadly, all of my friends are either leaving early or flying straight home so I will be traveling by myself. Shortly after I arrive I will be having a welcome home party, so get ready for Honduran food, meringue & reggaeton music and Jeopardy to see how well you have been keeping up with my blog.

If I do not stay in Honduras with USAID I will move back to Cleveland to live with my parents. Although many people my age shutter at the idea of moving back in with the folks, I have no shame and love living with my parents, can’t wait to spend time with them and be back in Cleveland (although I think I will have to do something about the winter issue). Maybe I will go to India…When I graduated from college my parents gave me a wonderful gift; a plane ticket to anywhere in the world. I have been thinking about how best to use it and think that I may take advantage of it to go to India. I have been practicing yoga for a while and in the past have wanted to go to India to practice yoga. In Costa Rica our yoga instructor mentioned how cheap the teacher trainings are and since then I have been considering the possibility of going to study and getting certified as a yoga instructor. It would be nice if I could coordinate that with winter in Cleveland because I would really like to avoid that if at all possible.

Tegucigalpa, India, Cleveland…who knows where I will end up next year. On the other hand, I am pretty sure I want to go to grad school in Public Health Administration the following year, so wherever I am, I will be researching schools (in warm climates) and applying for fall 2010.

I really don’t know what I will be doing next and I am totally okay with that. I am excited for whatever my future brings and know that regardless I will make the best of it.