Aspiration Statement

The Invitation packet I received contained several folders and a couple useful books like the Volunteer Handbook, a guide to making the cultural adjustments and some advice to friends and family on the home front. The folders are labeled "Passport/Visa", "Resume and Personal Papers", "Domestic Connections", "Staging Materials" and "Finance and Insurance".

These folders are relatively self-explanatory. "Passport/Visa" was the most important of these folders. Peace Corps sent me this packet with just enough time to squeeze my information through the six-week process it takes to get the passport and visa. I got to work right away and filled out the necessary paperwork. This was pretty confusing for me because I've never done this before. I'm assuming that whoever put my folder together forgot the South Africa Visa form but luckily I was able to find the same one from the included example online. I just printed it out and included the necessary photos.

Instead of having the Post Office send the forms to...wherever it is they send them, Peace Corps requires us to send them to a third-party travel agency called SATO for processing. The air-mail packet PC was kind enough to include for this was too small for the folder that the Post Office returned to me. It's okay, I made it work.

With that out of the way, I moved onto my updated resume and aspiration statement for my host country. Peace Corps doesn't send your information overseas and these two bits of information will be the only way for your overseas connections to get a sense of who you are. I read that they are forwarded to your host family too.

I know why I joined the Peace Corps and I have already spoken or written much of this aspiration statement throughout the application process, but I wanted to gain a sense of what other people had written. The blogs of volunteers who have gone ahead have been very helpful for me. They give you a sense of direction and remind you that there are people with the same shortfalls still hoping to make an impact in the world. It's heartening, and I hope that by including my own aspiration statement that I can offer a little more of the same to those looking for an idea of what to say - Remember: "Communication is about being effective, not always about being proper." Bo Bennett

The directions for this said to "describe your expectations about your Peace Corps service and assigned project, your strategies for adapting to a new culture, and how you expect your service to further your personal and professional goals." It gave five sections to focus on and I have seen different people write it different ways. Some people include the questions and answer each of them individually. I wanted to write it as more of a letter so I was sure to focus on the points provided but tried to keep a theme between the paragraphs. I think you can pretty much write it any way you want it. Relax! You've already got the job!

A: The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill, during your Peace Corps service.

I am thoroughly grateful for this opportunity to serve the country of South Africa through such a notable organization as the United States Peace Corps. It is this organization that has strived to connect the many unique, vibrant cultures of the world that captured my attention at a young age and inspired in me a passion to add to its efforts. To this end, it is my hope that the skills in language and communication that I have learned at University of the Cumberlands may enrich the many communities I will be working with and within. The skills provided by my education are further honed by the many leadership roles I have filled prior to my service and have been vital to the teaching, mentoring and tutoring programs that have prepared me for this service.

B: Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.

Those programs, like the Peace Corps, rely upon the collaborative efforts of individuals with varying backgrounds to work effectively on a broad scale. My experience with building relationships across these boundaries will prove most beneficial when working with my host partners. Primary to any collaborative effort is the necessity of trust between those involved. Trust, I believe, is built through an open channel of communication. This is achieved through a clear willingness to abandon preconceived notions attached to a project or people while extending a firm respect for all those involved. Respect, in this case, is what I believe to be a targeted application of my skills: the wisdom to know where I am needed and in what capacity. In this regard, I am fully committed to learning from those I work with and from those that have preceded me to best build trust, companionship and a greater good to the collective.

C: Your strategies for adaptive to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.

There is no doubt that this kind of adaptation to a new culture and country will be difficult; however, adaptation is a skill in which I comfortably engage. My family is a blend of Mexican-American lineages that has formed the basis for my commitment to positive cultural relations. This kind of cultural synthesis is inherent in the American vision of progress where no one culture supersedes another. This is a vision that my father swore to protect in the United States Marine Corps and a vision confirmed to me as his obligations took us to every region in America. In the many states where we settled, I witnessed the same degree of pride the native people expressed for their history and their land. Though we rarely stayed in any one location longer than four years, I found that “adaptation” meant sharing that pride by involving oneself in it. South Africa has a rich and beautiful history that I am proud to soon share by contributing to it and by allowing it to reshape my own experience.

D: The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.

I am most excited to add to my experience by living within and working with a culture different from my own. As a linguist and writer, I have a appetite for language and storytelling. It is for this reason that I find the language training invaluable to sharing cultural tales that will add to my own creative outlook and, hopefully, inspire those of others. In addition, I am confident that my pre-service training will prepare me with the tools and skills I need to be an effective Resource Specialist to my place of assignment. To this cause, I am ready to apply the utmost effort to best execute my duty.

E. How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.

I have no doubt that my Peace Corps service will instill many unforeseen personal and philosophical changes. It is through these changes that I hope to gain a fresh perspective on where my strengths are best applied while learning to improve and correct my weaknesses. I believe that volunteering will allow me to overcome conflict so as to grant me the skills needed to continue my education into graduate school. South Africa is home to a culture and heritage that will add to my understanding of human relationships which, as a writer, will prove instrumental to my craft. These skills and experiences will stay with me long after my service ends and will provide me with a wealth of knowledge that can only be found by actively participating in this program.

The Great Trek

I’m proud to finally feel confident enough to put this blog up. Since last June when I first started an 11-month process to apply to the Peace Corps, I have fought with the idea of posting something permanent with the knowledge that I could still not receive an invite. If I started a blog, committed to it and kept it regular, I felt that it would make it all the more depressing if I did not receive the invitation to serve—to have put all that time and effort hoping for something that still was not sure…

But I was already hoping and had been for a long time.

So when that invitation packet arrived on my doorstep a week after the Peace Corps Toolkit notified me of my invite-status, I felt a kind of relief and excitement and nervousness and joy all in one Wonka-style, nugget-crunch of emotion. I felt this, because after a year of telling people that I was going overseas to do “not-sure-what” in “not-sure-where,” I finally did know what and did know where. I have a destination and a mission to accomplish when I get there.

On July 5, 2011, I’ll be leaving to South Africa to volunteer as a Resource Specialist for the Peace Corps!

Now, I would like to take the opportunity to thank those that have supported me throughout this journey:

To Chris: Thank you for giving me an “office” to have my Skype call to Chicago, for being late to work because I didn’t know we needed money for fingerprints and for listening to countless worst-case-scenario terrors I envisioned throughout this process.

To Tanna, Andy, Mrs. Fish: Your references and your guidance through enthusiastic support of this goal of mine.

To Lucas: For giving me some peace of mind when I thought the waiting would drive me crazy.

To Brianna: Because you’ve been the best of friends and the richest of support, my confidence at times and my means of getting through the many sleepless nights where I was not so sure of myself.

To Mom, Dad, Eric and Ezra: Because leaving the family you love is the hardest part about all of this. You gave me the tools, instructions and examples to live by. Because without you, I wouldn’t have asked the questions, read the books and wondered what my place in the Universe is: all things that directly led me to this point.

To The Others: I cannot hope to remember all the many supportive faces that have put their hope where I did, listened when I could not help but worry and share a similar joy to mine at this news.

Thank you all. This is not a journey I could complete alone nor would I have wanted to.

I wanted to call this blog something that would draw from South African culture and history. For those that don’t know, “The Great Trek” was a mass exodus by European Africans (Dutch Boers who called themselves “Voortrekkers”) who left their home in the Cape Colony to evade British rule. The British, having recently acquired South Africa through the Napoleonic wars, substituted the official use of the Dutch language for English. Laws like these helped exacerbate an already-ailing sense of sovereignty for the colonists who gradually lost their ability to influence government through magistrates and councils.

In history, these Voortrekkers moved north and east where they encountered conflict with the many tribes already inhabiting the region. In Natal, these whites clashed with the Zulu people and killed many of their warriors. In the east, colonists faced continued aggression with the proud Xhosa, a relationship that would help influence a man from that tribe named Nelson Mandela.

The Great Trek marks a fundamental shift in the history of South Africa. It is a time where the identity of the white Afrikaans became cemented and it is a time where cultural and racial lines began to scar the beautiful landscape of South Africa. These same scars can still be seen today, just 17 years after the ending of racial segregation under the policy of apartheid. The ghost of apartheid still haunts this culture through the many adaptations blacks and whites have made during its perverse rule.

And here I am, 200 years later about to make a similar journey. I know I’m about to leave the land and family that I love. I have an admitted ignorance of the culture and people I will meet. I have little concrete knowledge of what I will do when I get there. In many ways, I feel very much like these early Voortrekkers…with a difference.

When I leave to go to South Africa, I will be going with an open mind to learn from a people I know little about. Instead of fighting, we will be working together to build something new for the community. We will be working across cultural barriers rather than along them. This will take a lot of effort, a lot of patience and a special kind of wisdom to know where I fit in my new home. This is a different journey from the Voortrekkers; one that I hope will be positive to the people I intend to serve and for me as I learn from them.

I don’t believe this task will be easy, but I didn’t sign up for it because I thought it would be.