Welcome to my blog! Let me say that this blog is first and
foremost an attempt to extract the hilarious and sometimes outrages events that
I have come across in my time abroad.
I am in the 2nd month of a 6-month stretch living
in the Dominican Republic doing HIV/AIDS prevention work in gay communities.
This is not my first time in a 3rd world country; I have previously
traveled to India, Chile, Honduras, Poland and the majority of Western Europe.
There is no way that I can absolutely call myself an expert
on 3rd worlds, there are many, many more who have had a greater
amount of time abroad, but I would definitely not consider myself a beginner in
travel. I come from a very international background. I was put through a
bilingual grammar school where 90% of my classes were taught in Spanish. In high school I received a good catholic
education from one of Chicago’s best all girls schools. My early education provided a wealth of
experience in international cultures, the majority of those I was around came
from around the world… with the most being from different parts of Latin
America.
In college I choose a completely alternative path in
attending a university in one of the least diverse states in the United States,
Iowa. I loved my education there and I had the opportunity to grow into my
“minority” identity. Instead of being
the half white girl among my Latino friends, I was now the Latina girl in a sea
of Caucasians.
I won’t bore you the reader with the how’s and why’s of how
I have come to do my current work. I
will say that I went off and joined American politics, realized that I wasn’t
doing what I really wanted to do, moved back to Chicago where I obtained my masters
degree and began an internship at a non-profit that focused on minority
populations within Chicago and within the past 10 years has moved into working
with most-at-risk-populations around the world.
At the end of my schooling I took a position in the
Dominican Republic office of this Chicago non-profit. I moved down in late
February 2012 and will be here until early September 2012. So there you have
it. The background (although admittedly brief and generalized as it may be) as
to how I have come to this point in my life.
I only hope to convey to the reader the many very funny
stories that a life abroad of a spoiled American “minority” is. Enjoy J!
No comments:
Post a Comment