life update

Finally, Jess!

So by now I've been back in the US for as long as I was in Peru. You might be thinking, what have you been doing, Jess? And what the heck are you going to do?

I don't tend to like questions that are all about action since our culture puts such a big emphasis on doing doing doing, but at some point, yes, I've got to be doing something.

For the record, I've been trying to figure out the "what's next" question ever since I set foot in Indiana, but all good things in life take time, don't they? I've been through many an interview and conversation, and I guess at the end of the day, I was the one who said "no" to the several paths that opened up. The only door that shut painfully on my toes was going back to Peru. You've got to know, part of my heart is still and I think will always be in Peru. That's just the reality that happens when you leave (and come back) for service.

But, despite the times I have denied certain opportunities, sometimes to my mother's distress (sorry, mama!) there is one thing to which I have now said "yes." That is, a domestic year of service with the Capuchin Franciscan Volunteer Corps (CapCorps for short), working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with Columbia St. Mary's (http://www.columbia-stmarys.org/). It is a health care organization with which I will be working in health education. I don't know all the details yet, because the position is very new, but I will be going around with a team of nurses and educators to churches in underserved communities to raise awareness on different topics, such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. I will also be working with parental and prenatal education in a program called Blanket of Love that serves young women and teens. Gulp, I know nothing about parenting, but I guess I will learn.

There are a couple of key reasons why I chose CapCorps. I got the sense that the staff really cared about me and were trying to help me grow no matter if I wanted to work with them or not. They looked for a placement in health care for me and found one, because they knew that is for what I was searching. They have also offered me a re-entry retreat for volunteers who have been back in the US for a while since being abroad. They have no responsibility for helping me through re-entry, and yet their offer stood whether I accepted a placement with them or not. That said something to me.

I think, too, that I chose CapCorps because it gives me a new slate in a certain sense, even though I very much see this work as a continuation of what I hoped for and sought in Peru as a JV. I mean, the interest in health care issues stems from getting sick in Peru, from going around to my host mom's work sites. It is deeper than that, but very much connected. Still, the Franciscans have something new and rich to teach me, I can feel it.

Anyways, that's my life update. See the right side bar for my new address. Oh, I'm also leaving in a day, on Thursday, August 4th. It sort of happened really fast (and a lot of it developed while I was sitting outside the Hog's Head at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida, by the way). I've told virtually no one outside of my family, but this is hopefully changing that.


To new beginnings, new life, and love.