Sunday is dedicated to laundry. Laundry here is an activity, job, something to do when you’re bored, a chore. It’s not like back in the United States where laundry is a secondary activity while you are doing something else. Here, it is a primary activity. You dedicate all your ti[...]
Posts Tagged ‘working abroad’
Us Canadians Love Our Rules…
The distance between San José, Costa Rica and Vancouver, Canada is roughly 56,00 kilometers. This number, however, does not fairly reflect the cultural distance between the countries. In my mind, they are two different worlds. Upon visiting both, an objective observer from another planet would be [...]
Nicaragua to Alaska: An Unlikely Duo
I joined the ranks of La Vida because I am an idealist. I believe that, in one way or another, it is our duty to give back what we can. I believe in the right to energy, clean drinking water and education. I believe that idealists who volunteer can make a direct impact and pay [...][...]
A Job Search from Abroad…
…is never much fun. I reassure myself that it wouldn’t be THAT much better if I were actually in the States, given the economy and opportunities for recent grads. But being on another continent seems to be a significant disadvantage—even if you are applying to organizations that work in the gl[...]
May 28th, 2010 - 11:19 am § in Around Town, Mexico
On My Toes
I’m in a dangerous place. Not because of the drug war going on around me. Nor because I’m 30 feet up a rock face of El Potrero Chico. Not because I’m hanging by a 10-millimeter-wide chord on my handy dandy harness. It’s dangerous because it’s comfortable. The comfort zo[...]
Thoughts for the Outbound Voyager
While I was nursing a particularly virulent strain of post-grad school wanderlust, I received a card in which was written simply: Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. It was Horace, and can translate from the Latin as: They change the sky, not their soul, who run across the sea. [...[...]
Goldfish and Golden Sunsets: Life in Montevideo
“And you’ve never been to Uruguay before?” people would ask, when they learned why I was fleeing Boston mid-winter. No, I’d tell them. Although when feeling more expansive I’d amend: well, for one day back in 2003. I hopped over from Buenos Aires to Colonia by myself, ate a ch[...]
May 11th, 2010 - 10:53 am § in Around Town, Guatemala
On the Road – But Why?
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars. [...][...]
May 7th, 2010 - 10:15 am § in Around Town, Ecuador
Confessions of an Urban Volunteer
There are certain things I know I like to have in order to be happy: ample exercise, a variety of foodstuffs (with lots of fresh fruits and veggies), and a network of interesting and intelligent friends who I can speak to in English (much as I hate to admit it). How many of those things would [...][...]
“When are you coming back?”
To go away is to die a little, it is to die to that which one loves. Everywhere and always, one leaves behind a part of oneself. – Edmund Haraucourt Field work requires comfort with transience. Many development workers parachute into places, build their lives from scratch, weave themselves i[...]
