In the Beginning…

So, I failed a little bit when I was blogging about my study abroad experience in South Africa and I’m already a little bit behind now, but I promise I’ll try and be better this time around.  I have been in Haiti for just about 4 days now, and on my Haitian adventure for a little less than a month.  But, I think I will go back and start at the beginning.

In June, I graduated from college.  I began my senior year dreading the infamous question of "what are you going to do after you graduate?"  I had no idea what I wanted to do to or where I saw myself going.  I was continuing to work with the same refugees I had been working with for three years  doing everything from math homework to explaining social service forms and I loved it.  But, I was also coming back from an amazing experience in South Africa and from doing community development work in Malawi.  When I arrived home from Africa, I was thinking that working abroad in developing communities was something that I liked and could potentially do, but I still wasn't sure.  As my year progressed and I had not yet received my moment of epiphany that would tell me what I was destined to do, I decided that taking a year to do some service and community development work would be a perfect way for me to decide if it was actually something I could do.  It would also let me travel and see new parts of the world, learn a bunch of new things, and essentially postpone the necessity of making real life decisions.

Enter Haiti.  In February, my town in Maine hosted a benefit dinner for Haiti.  My mom was telling me about it and said that some bowls were being sold at this dinner to help fund the starting of a microfinance program in Haiti.  I had written my senior thesis on microfinance, and I liked the idea of potentially doing something that would let me see firsthand what I had written 80 pages about.  I was told about the sisters who were starting the program, given the name of someone to email and a website.  I googled the information, read briefly about the Quest Volunteers for Haiti, saw that not only did they work in the field of microfinance, but also in education, environmental protection, art production, and health care.  They also host a day camp every summer for kids who attend one of the local schools.  Although I had no intention of working for a religious organization when I pictured myself doing development work, the strength of the relationship after 17 years of working with Haitians appealed to me.  They knew the community they were in, and the community knew them.  So, I applied and was accepted to spend a year in Haiti working as a Quest Volunteer for the Religious of Jesus and Mary.

One adventure ending, but the beginning of another.