When making my decision to live and teach abroad three years ago, a major concern for me was language. How will I communicate? How will I get what I need? Will the locals understand me? How will I make friends? Learning the spoken language is obviously one of the most essential steps in getting to [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Latin America’
Pregnant in Latin America – Now What?
My husband and I found out a few days ago that we’ll be parents next July. While the fluctuating emotions swarm our thoughts, we are trying to maintain the balance of excitement and concern for having this child as expats. Finding out you are pregnant in another country can be difficult on many le[...]
Volunteerism in Latin America: The Big Picture
United Nations Volunteers (UNV) is a UN organization that promotes volunteerism in development work in approximately 130 countries, including Uruguay. Among the organization’s goals are “advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into developmen[...]
November 19th, 2010 - 4:00 pm § in Around Town
Unregistered Nursing
Give me a syringe and call me a doctor, or at least a nurse. It seems after a six dollar visit to the doctor last week, I became one step closer to my nursing degree — if I ever want to get one. The doctor asked my tonsil-swollen husband if he wanted medicine in injection [...][...]
November 4th, 2010 - 11:03 am § in Country, Culture, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Tips & Resources, Volunteer
Origins of Responsibili”ti”
In the weeks leading up to me leaving the U.S., many adults from my parents’ generation told me the same thing: “Oh. Well.. it’s nice that you are doing this now at a time in your life when you have no real obligations or responsibilities.” What they really wanted to hear from me was a t[...]
Small Frustrations and Big White Elephants
Here’s one: The Chilean English professors use English-Spanish dictionaries pretty often in class. Unfortunately, the ones we have are old. When you pick some of them up, they fall apart. Pages slip out onto the floor, and students frantically run to gather and scotch-tape them together. Moreover,[...]
Skyping for School
“Back in my day, we had to send letters across the ocean and wait weeks to get a response,” says my pastor who lived in western Europe for 20 years as a missionary. I’ve got it good. Two thousand miles is bridged in seconds with Skype, a program often used by my husband and I [...][...]
Cavorting Across the Cultural Divide
It’s been quite a momentous year for Chile, what with the earthquake, the inauguration of Sebastian Piñera (first right-wing leader since the dictatorship), their first World Cup in twelve years, and now, this September 18th, the two-hundredth anniversary of their independence. September 18th is [...]
