Off I Go.

In less than a month I will be heading on my second trip of volunteering abroad, though the length of my first trip is nothing comparable to my upcoming adventure. (You can read about my time as an English tutor in Guatemala here.)

I've been accepted into the Peace Corps as a Secondary Education English teacher and will be spending my time in Namibia from August 2009 to December 2011. I'm anxious and excited and nervous and so many emotions I can't even explain, but I'm almost 100% positive that this is exactly the right thing for me in this moment.

Since the start of the application process last August I have been struggling with the thought of leaving friends and family for over two years, among other things, including what exactly it means to be a part of the Peace Corps. I've been seriously examining my position of privilege as a white female in the United States. I've been sitting pretty comfortably on the cushion of a white middle class female with easy access to education. Sometimes I worry about falling into, or at least being viewed as one in the position of a soldier to the United States' imperialism, with the attempt of spreading Western values with no regards to anyone else. But I try to see myself instead as an individual just trying to understand a little more of the world, and herself, with hopefully some knowledge or skills that at least one person might find useful. I want to immerse myself in a new community not as someone who is better or as someone who knows the "right" way to do things. And I'm well aware that this is going to have a much larger positive impact on me than I could ever hope to have on anyone else.

"If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time, but if you are here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." - Lilla Watson