1person

Long day getting to and from NYC yesterday. Every step I did not judge how much time it would take me to get where i needed to be. And those of you who know me well KNOW my blood pressure was up, I was tense cause I absolutely HATE to be late! I got to New Haven with 7 minutes to spare. I ran to the station and down to the train gates and just asked someone “what gate is the train to NYC?” Luckily I knew I could buy my ticket on the train. unluckily i could ONLY buy one way from the conductor. oh well live and learn.

Then I enjoyed a lesiurely lunch in Grand Central Station thinking 1/2 hour would be plenty of time to get to my destination. no such luck. so i was 10 minutes late. I did call ahead to let Andrew know I was coming but running late.

My favorite question was ‘Have you had any major change in your life in the past year.” Anyone who has grieved and read the self-help books knows why he asked that one!

Then we talked about where to draw the line with customs and behaviors you believe to be wrong. I talked to him about Mississippi and how I could not let my children join Girl Scouts because the troops were segregated. To me that was just the opposite of what I wanted Girl Scouts to teach my girls. I didn’t preach against it. I didn’t try to change the culture because I knew I was not going to live there any longer than i had to. I let my example and my actions speak for me.

Andrew was very open and encouraging through the whole interview. He said that older volunteers have experience and age that bring them more respect than the younger volunteers even if the language and cultural changes often come harder for the older volunteers. I said I imagined the 3 months of language training would be awful followed by the real learning when I got to my site. I figure my new community and I will have a few laughs over my learning curve. He told a funny story on himself. He said the word in Nepal for book and fart are practically indistinguishable to an American. So the first day of teaching his new class he stood up and said “let’s fart this book!”

Another interesting thing I learned is that you can have a class of students write to you and your community while you are there. I would love it if my granddaughters class could do that. She will be 1/2 way or almost all the way through Kindergarten when I go. That would be so cool for both of us.

Thank you friends and family for all the good wishes for my interview and placement. I agree with the one who said “hope they can give you a placement that’s surprising and satisfying”. I’ll let you know when I get the email with placements in them. Tomorrow, Thursday July 5th late in the day.

-vicky