EST. 2011

What more can I say? It’s hot. After four years of playing soccer in the grueling Memphis humidity and heat, you would have thought that I would have become almost immune to hot weather. Well, I’m not. I’m going to even go out on a limb and say that I think it was even hotter and more humid in Memphis. Although, it seems two times warmer here due to a couple of things. One, the houses here are made of cement which can give the feeling of being in an oven with windows. Two, the majority of the people have an AC unit in their bedroom and the rest of the house is cooled by the river breeze or strategically placed fans. Third, tin or concrete roofing can heat the house up even more. In conclusion, the United States’s hottest places are made ever so comfortable because people only exist between air-conditioned environments. Even Memphis in August, which peaked the heat index at around 115, was more manageable simply because you only had to suffer the wrath of mother nature while outside and...

The photos are of Peace Corps director - Aaron William, Vice-President Biden, and President Obama. Mr. Williams, Mr. Biden, and Mr. Obama are accompanied by the American and Colombian flag. 

My year long work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia started on May 19th 2012. My first flight left Boston at 6:40 AM. I got into Miami around 10 AM. I had lunch during my two hour layover and then proceeded to Panama City, Panama. It was in Panama that I met the other two volunteers who I'll be working with for the next 12 months . Andrew is from Oakland and spent a year with PC Cape Verde in Africa. He decided to do the year in Colombia after Cape Verde was shutdown due to regional restructuring/budget cuts. Eric was a PCV in Central America for about a year and, like Andrew, decided to join up again after being asked to leave Honduras earlier this year due to security problems . Andrew and Eric  are the two guys on the far right of the photo below. The photo was taken as we exited customs in the Barranquilla international airport. We arrived around 5 PM local time and were received by the country director, director of programming/training, and five other PCV's from Co...

Colombia, as the right-side of the map  indicates, is located in the north-western corner of South America and touches both the caribbean sea and the Pacific ocean.  As you can see on the left-side of the map, Barranquilla is located on the northern caribbean coast and is wedged  between Cartagena and Santa Marta.   The link below is to the wikipedia page which offers more basic info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barranquilla

As my new title and blog picture suggests, I will, beginning tomorrow June 19th 2012, be working for an NGO in the port city of Barranquilla, Colombia. I'll be there for a year with the Peace Corps, although I'll be working with the Non-Governmental Organization  Fútbol Con Corazón.   Fútbol Con Corazón is a grass-roots social change model which utilizes soccer's calling power to provide new life opportunities for 2,000 vulnerable boys and girls, ages 5-16, in Colombia’s Caribbean coast who live below the poverty line. This extra-curricular holistic program focuses on three areas: athletic training using the “soccer for peace” methodology; values-based experiential workshops focusing on gender, conflict resolution, and tolerance among other crucial values; and well balanced nutrition. So, while I'll be on the Peace Corps pay roll, I'll be working a 100% of the time with FCC and look forward to getting the ball rolling.  The link below is a short video that gives a...