I'm Off For A New Adventure, Prayers Are Greatly Appreciated!

[LinaSt.Cecilia2772]

So some of you know this already, but I will be leaving tomorrow (June 25th) to volunteer in Paraguay in South America for six weeks. I will be living in communities with pretty much the bare minimum, such as little to no running water and/or electricity, as well as being in poverty. My project in Paraguay will be focused on Youth Empowerment, which means I will be teaching in the schools and will be working with kids a lot to facilitate projects that are based by the community members goals and are initiated by the community members. These projects vary based on the needs of the community itself.

 

I will be living with a host family in my assigned community, which is necessary to build the relationships with the community members which will ultimately cause the most change both ways. The relationships built with the people there and cross cultural awareness are what will be the catalysts for the projects we do. I will also be assigned to a partner/s, which are other volunteers of the same program that come from other chapters throughout the US. The program I'm volunteering with has chapters nationwide, and volunteers from each chapter are assigned to countries and projects in those countries. All the countries the program has projects in are the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Many of the volunteers that I trained with in my chapter have already left to their countries and are in their communities. It's all starting to freak me out and I'm scared, excited, nervous, worried, and pretty much every emotion all in one. Many challenges will arise from this endeavor, such as being immersed in a culture and environment I'm totally not used to, learning more Spanish and Guarani (Guarani is the indigenous language of Paraguay that is still spoken quite often), having to purify my own water and getting sick, facilitating the projects, etc. Basically, this program is a shorter version of the Peace Corps for high school and college students.

 

Because of all this, I definitely need prayers Pham. I've traveled overseas many times, but I've never taken on an adventure and endeavor such as this one before. Any advice, words of wisdom, etc. will also be GREATLY appreciated. Even though I've gone through extensive training for this, I'm still freaking out.

 

I also will be able to receive letters, so if anyone would like to send me a letter while I'm in Paraguay, PM me for the mailing address. I don't want to post the address on a public thread. I may be able to get online during project mid-briefing three weeks in to give an update, but no guarantees.

 

Adios mis amigos! Veré a todos ustedes en seis semanas!

 

[Anastasia13]

Bring back stories. God bless you on your adventure.

[CatholicsAreKewl]

Who's "stories"?

[BG45]

Prayers and good luck!

[AnneLine]

!Vaya con Dios, Hermanita!

[Lil Red]

praying for you. :)