So, it's coming down to the wire and my flight to Costa Rica is only 12 days away. I still can't believe that this is all happening!
It's weird for me to think that I even got this far. Throughout the entire application process I doubted myself and my abilities. I didn't think that I would even make it to the interview round. Luckily I had a good support system through Ali S. whom I met at the Borlaug Dialogue last October. She went through the process with me and I can honestly say I was blessed to have her stress out and rejoice with me. We both worked so hard and we made it. We're both Borlaug Ruan Interns and we're both going to work on internship sites and on projects we love.
Now I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous about this experience. I'm the first New Jersey Borlaug Ruan Intern and I really hope I'll prove my worth. I'm relatively new to the world of agriculture and I haven't faced hunger and poverty in a foreign environment before. The only remotely impoverished area I visit regularly is a town right next to mine where a lot of poor immigrants live. I know for a fact that isn't the worst example of poverty that exists in the world.
I'm extremely sheltered and I want to make sure that I'll approach these new sights, both good and bad, in an appropriate matter. I don't want to come off as someone who wants to be the white hero who boldly treks into a foreign, and thus "lesser", country to save it's poor citizens from poverty using tips the white hero read in some magazine. I want to go to EARTH and learn about what I can do to help others help themselves. EARTH is all about sustainable agriculture and from what I understand, the most important aspect of helping people in impoverished areas is teaching them ways to sustain themselves rather than drilling a well, saying,"Okay have a good life!", walking off, and leaving them without instructions on how to maintain this asset that was given to them. I know EARTH follows up on their projects and that they'll tech me the right way to assist a community in creating sustainable agricultural practices.
On a more personal note, I'm a little nervous about traveling on my own. This will be the furthest away from home I'll ever be. I won't see my family for 2 months. As somewhat scary this will be I really think it'll help me prepare for college. When I go to Iowa State I probably won't go home until winter break so two months away from home will seem like nothing in comparison. There's always skype, facebook, and facetiming. Plus, I'll be busy working throughout my internship and I know it'll keep my mind off of things.
Anyway, things are really starting to come together this week!
I've been shopping for the internship ever since I came back from orientation in May. I have a pile of supplies for my internship including, but not limited to, 2 sun hats that are moderately ridiculous, 5 big tubes of sunscreen because I'm whiter than white bread, more than 3 forms of mosquito replant, a pair of steel toed working boots so I have good shoes for the barn, and a lot of clothes. The pile is almost complete and now all I have to really worry about is how I'm going to fit all of it into a suitcase.
I've been communicating with Profe Moro and his colleague Sofia and I am so excited to get to work. I'm going to be working with livestock, fertilizer, and rain rationing while I'm at EARTH, which is really exciting because I've wanted to work with animals during the internship.
I'll be working as a team with a vet student from Ecuador during these projects! I think it'll be really cool to connect with a person from a completely different culture that I'm unfamiliar with. I live in a hispanic community, but the majority of the hispanic population is Puerto Rican, Mexican, or from other areas of Central America. I don't know much about South American culture since in school our spanish curriculum focuses on Spain or Central America. When they occasionally mention South America they usually discuss Argentina or Chile. I can't wait to learn about Ecuadorian culture!
Today Sofia and I will be skyping to discuss some aspects of my internship. I can't wait to discuss my project and find out more about EARTH! There's only so much you can find out from stalking the EARTH website and social media outlets.
That's what going on here, only 12 more days! I can't wait to tell you guys all about this experience soon.
Until next time, here's a video I took during orientation that's posted on my vlog channel. I'll be vlogging too, so subscribe to see some of the stuff I'm doing.
Bye guys! :)
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