August 20 - Photo Post!

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October 23 - Dancing for Small Change in the Marketplace

  I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance And when you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.   My theme song for Peace Corps so far has been “I hope you dance” by Lee Ann Womack.   I’ve listened to it so many times on my ipod, especially when I need a little encouragement.   It doesn’t always feel easy to dance – to live all the experiences here whole-heartedly, instead of holding back and “sitting it out” every now and then.   But the rewards have been moments of amazing sweetness and inspiration. There’ve been literal chances to take this song to heart.   One of these, a favorite day in village so far, was October 23 -   the day I made about 50 francs (around ten cents) for dancing in the marketplace.   When learning about Benin, I read that although about one third of all Beni...
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February 24 - What Peace Corps is Like Now

Was the last post I wrote really about Ramadan?   It’s certainly been a while.   I remember during our Peace Corps staging how we were told that you find lots of first year blogs online, about all the struggles of getting ones service started, but the writing falls off sharply once volunteers get into their second year.   I guess I’ve fallen into that trend.   So many things have happened that have made me think “what a good blog post topic!”   But that’s as far as the ideas have gotten.   So to get things going again, I’ll write about a very simple topic – what is Peace Corps like now, 4 months since I last wrote, and 6 months until the official end of my service?   1.        Peace Corps is Comfortable   It doesn't feel like a major accomplishment to get through a day now.  Sure, I have hard days - but it's sort of the same as having a hard day back in Boston, or in college - just a tough...
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June 15 - Why Peace Corps is Hard

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