Play Ball!!!

Well, it's official.  I'm a blogger. 

 

Strangely enough, my ideal blog title was already claimed, so you're stuck with the generic blogspot address afforded to all of us impoverished humanitarians who love free bandwidth.  Since I'm expecting to make somewhere between $250-300/month for the next 2+ years, paying the $19.99/mo. for the cool "ExPat 360" title just wasn't in the cards.  The bright side though?  I won't get a nasty letter from CNN general counsel or Anderson Cooper's attorney for boosting their "360" title...you know, because I'm expecting this blog to have that type of widespread popularity.  The web address should be simple enough for everyone, "pcvcbm.blogspot.com". The initials of my title (pcv for Peace Corps Volunteer) and the initials of my name (cbm for Corey Blake Miles)...see, told ya - simple.  The title really has dual significance.  First, it's part of a favorite bible verse (which is relevant for this type of experience).  The King James Bible translates this verse (Isaiah 6:8) as, " Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."  The second bit of significance isn't quite as lofty as the first, rather it's a result of repetition.  These words were etched into the stone above the doorway of B-Dorm at Hampden-Sydney College, and I guess they kinda sunk in after passing under them several times a day for my junior and senior years. 

Enough of the logistical mumbo jumbo...why am I blogging? It's the best way for me to keep in touch with all of my family and friends over the next few years, it will give you the opportunity to visit the developing world (albeit through my flimsy prose and blurry photos), and it's the most efficient way for me to journal this next season of life without sacrificing a rainforest to do so - which may be appropriate considering I may actually be living/working in the rainforest. 

 

So in this pilot post, I'll try to cover the "Five W's" and some other pertinent information before diving into the super fun stuff over the next several weeks, months, and years.  I hope (and plan) to update at least weekly, but a lot of that will depend on how reliable the Ecuadorian WiFi is, how expensive it is, and/or how long I have to walk to the nearest internet cafe.

Unfortunately, Blogspot doesn't have the capability for email alerts, but if you favorite the page and check back weekly, there should be some new material - although I'm sure the only people checking regularly (if at all) will be my mother, my father, and my girlfriend.  This blog is brand spanking new, so hang with me for a bit while I try out different formatting, graphics, styles, etc.  A few weeks and it should have some more razzle dazzle.  So, now that we got all that out of the way, here we go.

 

WHAT?

 

I will serve in the Natural Resources Conservation program of the United States Peace Corps.
 

Peace Corps is a program, originally established within the State Department, designed to promote "soft diplomacy" throughout the developing world.  After WWII, John F. Kennedy (then a Massachusetts congressman) sought a program in which young Americans would follow the lead of religious missionaries in the Middle East by"bringing technical advice and assistance to the underprivileged".  Senator Brien McMahon (D-CT) went a step farther in calling those young Americans, "missionaries of democracy".  While these ideas were volleyed back and forth in the initial discussions of an American volunteer force abroad, the dream never materialized.  In predictable governmental fashion, a really virtuous program fell apart due to disagreement about structure, funding, and scope.  That all changed when in his 1960 presidential campaign, Senator Kennedy reintroduced the concept during a midnight speech at the University of Michigan Student Union, and finally created the Peace Corps by Executive Order after his election.

 

"To promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower."

 

The words above are an excerpt from that Executive Order (#10924), issued on March 1, 1961, and authorized by Congress with the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87-293) on September 21, 1961.
 

Since that day in 1961, over 215,000 Americans have served in a total of 139 countries with Peace Corps.  The list of Peace Corps alumni includes corporate CEO's, university administrators, international diplomats, news contributors, and elected officials.  I'll try to walk you through my disorganized thoughts of where I would like for this experience to steer my career, but we'll save that for another time.

 

WHEN?

 

I will depart Virginia on Tuesday January 14th, will meet the rest of my team (aka my "Omnibus") in Miami that evening, and then we will all leave for Quito (Ecuador's capital city) together the next day.  My assignment is twenty-seven months, which will put my end date in April 2016...hopefully before Masters Week :)

 

WHERE?

 

For the first three months of my time, I will be training at a facility in Tumbaco - a town just outside of Quito.  Upon completion of that training, depending on how well I master the language and cultural protocols, I will be assigned my specific project and site.  If any Peace Corps official is reading this, I am so unbelievably phobic towards snakes...so I prefer not to live in the jungle for two years!

While my professional obligations will be in Ecuador, Peace Corps encourages travel during this experience; therefore, I'm hoping to visit as many South American countries as my bus and hostel budget will allow.  Who's meeting me in Brazil this summer for World Cup?

 

WHO?

 

That one's easy...me.

 

WHY?

 

That one's not so easy. 

The answer to this question could be a blog post all unto itself, and maybe it will be; for now though, I will go for brevity.  When I first applied for this program in the summer of 2012, I knew I wanted to serve on an international scale.  If living on another continent within a different culture wasn't scary enough, doing so on very limited resources is terrifying!  I wanted to serve though, and I might as well jump into the deep-end head first.  As I began filling out the application in my comfy home office (that had many leather-bound books and smelled of rich mahogany), I asked "Why am I doing this?"  When I thought deeper though, the events that transpired in my life were almost a tailor-made reason to transition the question from "Why should I do this?" to "Why should I not do this?"  I'm divorced, have no children, have little debt, working a job that doesn't really stir passion, and have a deep inspiration for unique adventure.  Obviously there were drawbacks.  Leaving some of the friends I have made here in OKC (and those back home in Virginia) is going to be the most difficult thing I've done in quite some time.  Really guys, you all resurrected me from death a few years ago and my unending gratitude is perpetually yours.  Additionally, if leaving the best friends a guy could ever have wasn't enough, about four months ago, the most amazing, brilliant, and gorgeous woman entered my life...and those don't really grow on trees.  I'm so blessed though because she is someone who loves my passion and supports my cause, despite the distance...but hey, it'll just help her reach diamond-level frequent flier status that much quicker! 

Really though, why?  Pssh...why not?

 

So now what?  Well, I don't know.  I'll be posting here a few more times before I leave on the 14th - if only to vent the lunacy-inducing thoughts and anxieties that are clanking around my own head.  Even though today's post only covers the basics, I look forward to diving deeper into the mission of Peace Corps and the culture of Ecuador with you all.  Before we touch down in South America though, some of the topics I'm considering are my packing list, the amount of discussion surrounding bowel movements, the role of faith in secular missions, the hopes and dreams of the next season of life, and well, really anything else that my friends get tired of hearing about.

I also need to come up with some sort of clever sign-off.  Oh well, for now, you'll have to deal with bye.

 

Bye!

PS: If you read, please comment so I know who all is following along!  And yes, suggestions are welcome...encouraged, actually.