Morgan Montgomery (IPE '06) has just completed her first year as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras. Here is a brief report from the field. You can learn more by visiting Morgan's blog at
http://morganinhonduras.blogspot.com/
So the 8th of September marked the official one year mark of my
service. It is really incredibly hard to believe that I have been here
in La Libertad for an entire year. The time has gone by so quickly
and I am looking at only a year left and it makes me a little crazy.
I have no clue what I am going to do afterward, I miss my family and
friends, but at the same time I don't want the time to pass so
quickly. I truly love it here and I am very happy. At the same time,
I am not really concerned about what I am going to do when I am done,
because I know that it will all work out and I will end up exactly
where I need to be-wherever that may be. So for my one year, we had a
small celebration here in my house and Roque came over for the
weekend. I made a cake for the family and we sat around, talking and
listening to music, it was a lot of fun and very chill. I thanked
them for a year of extreme hospitality and for sharing their lives
with me for this year. It was really nice.
When I look back at the year that I have had here, I am amazed. First
of all, I have been living in Honduras for over a year and it feels
like home to me. Secondly, I have made incredible friends and I
consider my host family to be exactly that, family. I have had an
insane amount of experiences, good/bad and indifferent that have
taught me a whole lot about myself. When I reflect on my work here,
it is very mixed. I know my job here is not like any other job
really. But here is a brief list of my work here in La Libertad:
- -I have been trying for a year now to start Escuela Para Padres yMadres (parenting schools).
- I have been training a baseball team (the last few months have been
- significantly more productive especially with the new coach I have)
- I am teaching English to 85 sixth graders
- I have learned to appreciate the down time, the hours of free time
- I have taught a little English to a few adults (when they came to class)
- I am working with CODEM (emergency committee)-which only recently
- started doing things
- I work with the Library (ummm…yeah, probably the biggest headache and
- the most frustrating of all….it is always one step forward 12 steps
- back but hopefully that will change soon…we will see)
- I have experienced the joys of a family killing an opossum at 3am in
- the morning
- I gave one charla to 5 teachers on how to teach more dynamically
- I have definitely enjoyed the reading-for-pleasure time
- I was giving charlas (self-esteem, values, communication, etc.) to
- the library's youth group
- I have gone deaf as a direct result of fireworks at 4am on Holidays
- I have grown somewhat accustomed to the Honduran style of time
That is the life in Peace Corps. I know I, as well as others, came in
with the mindset that we were going to come in and change the world.
Well, we are making change, just not necessarily in the manner in
which we thought, although sometimes yes it does happen. Peace Corps
truly is a unique experience and I would not change it for anything.
The change here is often unseen, often making an impact years down the
line, and often in ways that you never expected. But more often then
not, the change is within us (for me, my manner of thinking, acting,
being…). And this change we will carry with us into future jobs, our
lives, and interactions we have everyday after this.
So looking back on this past year of service, I am so happy for
everything that has happened and so grateful that I have this
experience. Thank you all very much for all of your love and your
support. It means the world to me. Thank you for everything.
I cannot wait to see what this next year will bring, and I know it
too, will fly by. I just plan on living and loving every minute of
it.
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