Joining the Peace Corps

Okay, it's settled. Almost a year-and-a-half from when we first decided to look into international agricultural development, Kris and I have finally accepted an offer from the Peace Corps to help out destitute farmers in Latin America.

There has been a persistant pull on both of our hearts to get out of our comfort zone and go to help the poor. Even after getting rejected by ECHO this spring, we knew that we had to keep looking for opportunities. God would eventually provide.

And provide He did. Within the span of a week, we were offered a position to teach and tutor at a bilingual school in Honduras, as well as two possible positions in the Peace Corps. One of the possibilities fell through, but another, better offer took its place.

We decided to go with this most recent offer for several reasons:

1. As a couple, Kris and I are most passionate about the work we will be doing with the Peace Corps in Latin America. Kris will be training farmers and businesses to better manage forest and water resources, while I will be teaching farmers how to better manage their crops and land. The goal of both of these positions is to encourage greater production, a liveable income, and better stewardship of the environment.
2. The length of term (27 months) is long enough to get over the initial culture shock and start becoming effective.
3. It's in Latin America, where we can learn Spanish. We really want to learn another language, and Spanish is the most useful second language for life in the USA.
4. Even though we won't be able to officially try to convert people to Christianity, the Peace Corps encourages the exchange of ideas and cultures. This means we may have the opportunity to talk about God and share the gospel with people who may not otherwise get that chance. The school in Honduras is Christian and those kids will hear the gospel whether we go or not.
5. The leave date, September 20th, is over five weeks later than the leave date for teaching in Honduras. This gives more time to train people to take our places at work and in Church.
6. The Peace Corps takes good care of its volunteers. They provide insurance, medicine, training, transportation, and lots of wisdom for entering into a new culture. When we return, we receive one year of non-competetive status for applying for government jobs, as well as over $6k each for re-entry. Not that money is that important, but it makes our parents feel much better that we are taken care of.

We still have plenty of paperwork to fill out. We have to pass legal and medical reviews, so we will be seeing dentists, MDs, and dentists fairly shortly.

We are also looking for Christian pen pals while we are away. We probably won't be a part of a vibrant, growing church communtity while abroad, so we will need to import plenty of encouragement, teaching, and prayers from the US. ;)

Time to get back to work. By break is over. It's going to be tight as it is, finishing all the work that needs to be done before I resign, without spending lots of time writing blogs.

Rediscovering Devotion

It's amazing how quickly I can lapse into selfishness and godlessness as soon as there's a break in my weekly church routine. I absolutely love the nurturing environment of my church family. However, if there is a break in our weekly meetings, like there is right now, I begin to forget what I'm living for. I go into survival mode. Just get the job of living done. I am dimly aware of God, but only in a storybook way, as if I had read about Him in the morning paper.

What is it called when you show devotion to God in the company of Christians only? Should I not possess some secret intimacy with Him that continues through life's changes?

I need a hefty, daily helping of God, and I have become accustomed to having him served on a platter. A mark of maturity is to seek His presence always. Pray and meditate on His words. Nothing fancy. Just simple devotion.

---

On a completely different note, I discovered this treasure trove of inspiration, today: the Miller Center of Public Affairs Presidential Speech Archive. Now, as my Kris noticed today, you can "listen to a dead president declare war on a country that we now buy all of our electronics from". Fascinating.

Alligator, Alligator, Eat 'Em Up, Eat 'Em Up

I visited Kris' parents this weekend. Kris' mom, Jeanne, was having a retirement party last Thursday, and we didn't want to miss it. She's retiring from teaching Chemistry and heading the Science department at Crystal Lake South HS, my old HS. The CLS Gators, if you were wondering about the rah rah chant in the title. I never had 'Momma G' - as her students call her - as a teacher, but from the perspective of a bystander, I have always admired the passion she brings with her to the classroom. Her students love her, and she goes out of her way to make sure her "kids" are learning. She's going to be missed. She has left a good legacy, though, and I'm sure she will enjoy the free time.

Speaking of leaving High School, my sister, Jay, is graduating early this June. She's going to Lakeland College, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. It's only a 6.5-7 hour drive from Champaign, so that's pretty cool. I just hope my parents can find a job in the Midwest again, because then we could all visit again. This Texas thing is for the Muskies. That's right, the Muskies.

Oh, I got my nipple pierced yesterday.

<dramatic pause>

I was just lying in bed, with Aspen on my chest, purring, when all of a sudden, he decides to hook one of his razor claws into my left nipple and pull. As you can imagine, being taken unaware and it being such a sensitive spot, I screamed pretty loudly. Why do people do this on purpose? It was a really small hole, though, so I hope it heals....

On that note, time to get back to work.

Linguistic Profile

Jason Carter's Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

5% Yankee

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I finished Spanish 103 yesterday. The test was pretty easy, but I think I messed up the order of my direct and indirect object pronouns. I also forgot to change "le" to "se" when using direct and indirect objects back to back. Oh well.

I still haven't figured out quite how to get the whole thin client thing to work on old laptops. For now, I'm trying out just a "fat" client installation of FC Linux on the hard drive and using rdesktop. It is pretty fun to see my operating system in spanish.

I'm excited that I might have three replacements for I-life web developer next year. I'm meeting with Matt Febus and Matt Wondra tomorrow. Derek Moy wants to help, too. I should email him. It's going to be interesting, trying to train them over the summer, since they will be at LT. But I can always mail them code and documentation and stuff, so I think this will work.

I have to get back to work. My thinking break is over.

Accepting Software, Printer, and Laptop Donations

Okay, here's the deal. There's a bilingual K-11 school in Honduras, the poorest country in Central America, that needs to update it's computer education program, but can't because its funds are too limited. It's not unique in its situation. According to Oxfam International, the entire country of Honduras is in an education crisis.

However, you can help to give some students a good education and a brighter future by donating the following:

• Old laptops. Anything faster than 100-200 MHz would be fabulous. It either needs a CD drive, floppy drive, or a hard drive. It also would need one PCMCIA/cardbus slot (little slot about 2 1/4" long on the side or front of the laptop). These laptops will act simply as terminals to a modern, dual processor Windows 2k server.
• MS Office licenses. Most everyone has at least one family member with an old version of Microsoft Office. I prefer Office 2000, but 97 will work, too.
• A decent desktop printer. Inkjet or laser is fine. The smaller, the better, since it has to fit in someone's airline luggage.
• Money. The computers and networking equipment will cost between $4,000-5,000 in all, but just $120 will buy a laptop for another student. Then, there is the issue of power. The school needs a new transformer to increase the amount of power they can use. They still need about $3,500 to pay for installation and engineering/permits.

If you or anyone you know could possibly donate the above things, please send me an email. If you don't know my email address, go to http://www.illinilife.org/about/ and click on the protected email link in the lower right that says 'Jason Carter'. Thanks!

What a Year

Dang. It did it again. The semester just kind of snuck away. Yesterday was the last official church meeting of the school year. Only two more Spanish classes remain. Many of my friends are leaving for the summer. I feel a little like my brothers and sisters are moving out. I'm pretty bummed.

I'm also planning to step out of my role as web developer for Illini Life next semester, so I need to hurry up and find a replacement. As of right now, I don't have any likely candidates. Even if I do find someone who wants to take my place in the Fall, I'm a little worried that I won't be able to train them in all that they need to know in time. I've got to get commenting my source code....

I saw Erin and Mike's Symphonic Band II concert today. It was really good. I sat through the Concert I concert first, and it made me a little nostalgic for the days when I played trombone in the band. Back then, though, I thought the non-majors band was pretty lame, so I quit during my sophomore year. We had been playing the same songs I played in High School, and not nearly as well. The trombones, trumpets, and flutes were pretty good, but the rest were honestly lacking in either talent or practice or both.

But Symphonic II was brilliant. Very professional. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I also planted our wildflowers, corn, peas, and green beans today. Hopefully the cool weather abates soon so they can get growing.

Oh well. Time for bed. Only 9:27 pm and I'm exhausted. I had a lot of weird dreams last night and didn't sleep well. Most were Band of Brothers-like: I was a paratrooper. Most of the dream involved me sitting on a plane, and then about two minutes of confused fear as I realized that we were doing a special low-altitude jump into the mountains, I didn't know the drill, and I didn't have all my gear on. I woke up going over the different scenarios for what the best way was to make the jump.

After going back to sleep, the next dream involved trying to hike up a very large mountain range. Only, the way up was a large tower-like staircase, like a fire exit, but without the building. Parts didn't even have stairs, but rather a sort of free-hanging thin vinyl slide with handholds to pull yourself up. Pretty scary. Still not sure what was holding the whole thing up.

Anyways, I hope that doesn't happen tonight.