Photos, stories, and experiences of a Peace Corps Natural Resources Conservation Volunteer in Ecuador.

"There is no way to peace, peace is the way."

One week

With just one week to go until my long-anticipated departure for the Peace Corps, I figured I had better explain a little bit about where I’m going and what I’ll be doing there. (Look for an earlier post about the ‘why’).

I applied to the Peace Corps in July 2010. Almost exactly a year and half later, the adventure is finally about to begin. On January 17th, I’ll be leaving home for 27 months. I’ll first fly to Dallas, TX for staging, which is basically a meet-and-greet of trainees in my group and PC staff with a few final lectures thrown in. Then the adventure gets even wilder when our group flies to Ecuador on January 19!

For the first three months, I will be a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT). I’ll be living in Tumbaco, Ecuador (check out the contact section for my temporary address!) with a host family and attending training classes every day with other PCTs in my group. In April, I’ll be sworn by the US Ambassador to Ecuador as an official Peace Corps volunteer. From there, I’ll leave the training site and my fellow Americans and move to my site in Ecuador (which I won’t know until the end of training) where I’ll start my project (nope, don’t know what this will be yet either!). I’ll live there for the next 2 years completing my service until April 2014.

For those of you who want to know a little bit more about Peace Corps, it was created in 1961 by John F. Kennedy and is run by the U.S. government. Currently, there are thousands of volunteers serving in 76 countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, the Pacific Islands and the Middle East. PC’s three simple goals are:

  1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
  2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
  3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.


I consider myself VERY lucky to have been invited to serve in Ecuador (some people even say Ecuador has a reputation as a ‘Posh Corps’ location). PC Ecuador began in 1962, one year after the Peace Corps was founded, so I’ll be in the country for the program’s 50th anniversary! Ecuador is a small country on the western coast of South America — it’s only about the size of Colorado. The main language spoken is Spanish so I’ll have to brush up on my skills and maybe, possibly, hopefully be fluent by the time I come home!

And last but not least: for those of you who’ve even read this far, and I’m assuming it’s not very many, you’ll probably be expecting regular updates…. well, DON’T. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to create a blog. It seems very pessimistic of me, but I don’t have much faith that I’ll be able to keep it up. However, it seems like the Peace Corps thing to do and it helps fulfill the third goal. So here’s my warning: expect sporadic postings. If you don’t see a new post each month, do not fear the worst! Just email me! I have a journal and other ways to document my journey and this blog will probably be just an occasional passing thought. So once again, please email me! I’d love to hear from you. You can find all my contact info on the drop down menu to the left. :) ADIOS!

  1. sarahreichle posted this