Learning Peace : Stories from My Time in Peace Corps Ethiopia By Krista Jolivette
Learning peacez
Krista is amazing wonderful and her writing reflects that The way she has written about her journey is beautiful Learning Peace Stories from My Time in Peace Corps Ethiopia Have you ever come home from a long vacation or even a short weekend away and been so focused on your new destination that you forgot to unpack Perhaps it was just a day of shopping a time of running errands anything to get you out of the house for a little while and you came home with heaping shopping bags filled with groceries or clothes or all sorts of treasures Well my time away was 21 months and I came home in March with just a suitcase and a hiking backpack that was falling apart to show for it At the time I did not know how long I would be living out of my suitcase or how much time it would take to unpack Here I am in August five months later looking around my childhood bedroom at fragments of my suitcase scattered around the room It s taken time to unpack From the physical articles of clothing to the memories I carry with me from my time in Ethiopia Some things I unpacked quickly like food products and coffee and souvenirs I was anxious to hand off to friends and family Other items have taken a little longer to unpack the memories of coffee ceremonies bartering for hand woven baskets at the Axum market letters from my favorite students tied deeply to my heart Slowly but surely I have been approaching the end of my unpacking And that is what I ve done here in this book gradually unpacked my Peace Corps experience for you in a way that is hopefully in much better shape than my hiking backpack and in a way that is both honest and vulnerable the stories as uplifting as they were humbling for me This is not the year I was expecting I don t think it was for anyone So let me pause and say that sometimes in the most unexpected of circumstances we find true beauty If you had asked me as a high school or university student what my plan was when I graduated I can assure you I would not have answered with live in the desert of northern Ethiopia and teach hormonal teenagers English grammar No way And yet it was one of the most invigorating amazing awe inspiring experiences of my life I didn t expect it to but it knocked my world upside down and taught me the most important parts of my self my community and the world I live in 550 days of living in a foreign country serving as everything from an English teacher to a coffee maker to a diplomat for the U. Book Learning peaceful and I can without a doubt say I am exhausted It s a good kind of tired though It s the kind of muscle aching foot throbbing belly bloating tired that you get when you come home from the adventure of a lifetime and run into the arms of those you love most to receive a never ending hug I m tired but I am inspired I spent 550 days of my young adult life wandering in a desert both physical and emotional filling my heart and my head with stories colors beauty and pain all at the same time And I hope the chapters on the following pages do it justice I first made it a goal of mine to write one page every day of my time in Ethiopia I did not come close but I still managed to leave with some pretty good content Only a fraction of my time was spent journaling about the day the other 94% was spent building relationships making new friends teaching high school level English learning the language of Tigrigna and dancing my heart out Still I flipped through written pages of lists highlights joys and sorrows and narrowed down the list from over 450 blog posts to a little over 200 pages of stories and quips I hope you enjoy them Learning Peace Stories from My Time in Peace Corps Ethiopia.
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