Working It: Recent Temping Tales

I work as a temp, and I probably will for 3 or 4 more months. Sure, I could have hoped for more in terms of my post-Peace Corps job - and I had fun going to interviews, even received a few offers - but life gets in the way. We will be going to Grad School out of state, so getting a long-term job here in Maryland isn't in the cards for me right now. I like my temp agency - good location, wonderful ladies, even when some of the clients I work for aren't guaranteed to be the best. I like the on/off schedule because it gives me frequent breaks. Just how I used to study in college! And it's exactly what I need right now. In Malawi, it was culturally uncomely to work like a slave, so I got used to a relaxed, social, friendly work atmosphere. Here, it's almost a polar opposite. People are social to a point, but the main goal is to Be Productive. For Eight Hours Straight. That's hard to maintain! So, breaks are great. The main downside of temping is that health insurance is up to me, and even finding the time to go see the doctor (all 5 types of specialists that were recommended by my physician - ugh!) is difficult to arrange.

What have I done so far as a temp?

- Receptionist at The Textile Museum - 1 day. Beautiful little museum a short walk from Dupont Circle. Answering the phone and greeting visitors was a relatively straight-forward job. I got tripped up when the exterminator came by - I definitely didn't have the authority or desire to consent to spraying chemicals everywhere.

- Receptionist at an International Aid Org - 1 day. It was isolated up in that office - few outside visitors came in. Mostly answering the phone and forwarding calls, plus unlocking the door, over and over. Lots of cool international staff. But at least I got to chill on the internet and read the news. Easy, nice folks.

- Events Help with an International Relations / Political Interest Group - 2 weeks and 2 days. Great people - I loved how they kept calling me to come back, until the night of the event. I called tons of congresspeople / senators' offices schedulers trying to shore up attendance for the event, subbed in as the receptionist, did some data entry, etc. It didn't even matter that the interest group was Republican-leaning!

- Data Entry at a Food Bank - 3 days. I learned a lot about data entry, but I also learned that I am not a happy worker with a supervisor looking over my shoulder and stressing about time. Apparently I was so efficient that I did a 5-day job in 3 days: I got a call after my 3rd day to let me know I was no longer needed. It wasn't a great feeling. But I guess some people haven't had a lot of experience hosting temps - note to self, for future endeavors requiring extra helping hands: do not abuse power over someone else's hourly wage!

- Accounts at a Large Newspaper - 3 days + ? This is my current job. I'm sorting through invoice papers to find specific rogue retailers who don't keep good records of how much they owe the paper company. It's fun because I get to listen to podcasts while working, they fed me cake, and I have another intern around to chat with. There is also potential for extending!

Into the Bush

My last night here in Maryland, I came to understand what it is to pack up your life into two impossibly small, unbelievably heavy suitcases in order to take a chance on an unknown place where a new space awaits.

Come Monday, when most people are returning to their regularly scheduled schoolwork, jobs, or otherwise, I will be a shiny new teaching intern in the mountains of Malawi: Dedza, the site of the Malawian College of Forestry. My job in the Peace Corps will necessarily involve teaching, but I will be there to first help improve secondary schools at the grassroots, community level (read: they are not a government priority, yet). I will train in a village-based "cluster," so it will be less like sitting through classes and more like taking the jalopy out for a spin with my brand new PC buds. I can picture it now: "Does anyone know what that road sign back there meant?"

I will be living in a "homestay" for the three months of teacher training, so I'll get an intimate glimpse into - and a chance to be a part of - the Malawian family. Imagine intensive language classes until noon, working in the classroom until dinner, and then coming home to a "mom" or "sister" speaking to you rapidly in a language you're just beginning to grasp. Talk about a brain workout! Throw in pit latrines and bathing under the stars, and you might harken back to summer camp with the soundtrack on mute.

It won't be so bad. I'm actually very excited for the new language - but the intensive immersion training is a new thing for me, so all sorts of scenarios (like the previous one, for example) are playing out in my head. I am not sure what language I'll be learning, even though I have done some work with Chichewa; I could be in a Chitimbuka-dominant area too.

Most everyone wants to know how I'm going to eat vegan in Africa. Well, if I wanted to do that, I'm sure I'd use my resources to find a way. That's not part of the plan, however; I feel that the protest of the Ag industry's careless practices is going to be really irrelevant in a place where a chicken is slaughtered in honor of a guest by the host family, right before being cooked -- and in a place where food production for export is much more important than importing fun things like tangelos from new zealand and bananas from guatemala. I have seeds to plant a garden, but you better believe I'm going to eat what is available for my own health as well as to show respect for my new home culture. Integration is about changing your ways - not demanding others cater to peculiar American preferences.

But you'll hear about all that when it comes to pass! This week of preparations has been wonderful for absorbing so much love from many friends who have taken the time to "see me off." Most of my relatives have given me their blessing, which means a lot; I don't come from a very adventuresome, service-oriented family, so the idea of it still seems a bit left-field to them. But they have come to understand my passion and commitment, and are supporting me as best they can -- and that's all I could have wanted. I feel strongly now that the life I have had here has been very full of good people, and I am sad that I'm leaving it at such a time -- even though my departing caused so many great visits! I choose to interpret these events to mean that there is much to come back to, and that I have many examples of good people to enrich my life in the US.

It's time to switch over to the travel blog, and I'll write there as much as I can. I encourage any and all of you to drop me a letter in the mail, because it only costs 94 cents, and because I'd love to hear from you about the familiar and comforting details of home! Especially election drama.

This isn't a film blog, is it?

I'm lucky to have seen two great films this week.

The first, a showing of The Judge and The General, thanks to the Institute for Policy Studies and their obsessed Latin American issues staff. It was at The Avalon, not far from the Friendship Heights metro. Patricio Guzman, who is the famous documentalist of Chile (especially on the topic of the dictator Pinochet), was a coproducer. After the film, the judge himself sat in front of the audience to provide some lengthy answers to some heavy questions. I was mostly basking in the glow, but what the story is compelling: a priveleged judge awakens to the horrors inflicted on the people of Chile by Pinochet, and becomes the very first in Chile to indict him for the murder of los desaparecidos (the disappeared ones).

Tonight it was Into the Wild, which I watched with my parents while home for some birthdays. Great, great cinematography (half of that was thanks to nature for being so abundant) for a really beautiful, and ultimately tragic, story of a troubled guy who sets out to live on shoestrings, on a circuitous journey into Alaskan wilderness, in order to cope with his childhood and "society" that plagues him. Instead, he ends up finding out what true happiness is.. while leaving behind a trail of acquaintances he touched. This one hit a little close to home for me and probably my parents too. Africa is a wilderness to us here in the states, and I certainly don't appreciate how harsh I can be on my parents with my decisions.. but I know I won't truly be alone where I am going. This film will stay with me for a good long while.

Changes: That's just the way it is

It's a little sad to realize two of the things I identify with - tea and biking - might be making their way out of my life for good. It's not as traumatizing as a breakup, but still, it's tough to be moving on, and sometimes coming to terms with that takes more time than the changes themselves.


I realized I was hardcore addicted to tea one day at work: it was a busy day but my brain was sluggish and irritated. Something was amiss, but what? No signs of withdrawal appeared other than a few symptoms quite invisible to the outside world. Then I got to thinking about my habits.. and realized that I had become accustomed to filling my mug three, four, five times a day sometimes - nuking 10 or 12 ounce sof water at 2.5 minute blasts, and brewing loose or bagged tea, just to keep warm. On those days when the little old Virginia office sweltered because the AC was down, well, I drank tea then, too. And not just health-conscious green tea, either - usually some fruity variety of relatively high-octane black tea, because I have a huge collection of it in the drawer in my desk - too close to resist temptation.

Compared to coffee, tea is mild; but caffeine is caffeine, and my body doesn't know the difference between two cups of black tea and one cup of coffee. What my body did know was that I was inadvertently starving it on the day of my realization.

The idea of becoming dependent on something outside the self is uncomfortable to me to begin with - I prefer to power through pain from minor scrapes or headaches without the aid of a pill, and antibiotics make me nervous - but that wasn't it for me. It was the withdrawal symptoms that hammered the point home. Into my frontal lobe.

Why allow myself to get into some habit that I would have to keep up for the rest of my life if I didn't want to experience a fog of irritation everytime I forgot to feed the addiction? I've weaned myself off other material comforts in the name of environmental conservation, but the comfort of a fragrant cup never fell into the same mental category before. Until now.

So I'm on a strict regimen of herbal tea from here on out. I'm down to one cup of black/caffeinated tea per day (max). I know I'll miss the process of brewing tea, and that I'll feel a little gluttonous when I glance over my rather sizeable collection -- they're from around the world, you know -- but my sense of integrity will be redeemed.



What about biking, then?

Back in May, I had a great experience biking the Tour of the Scioto River Valley in Ohio, but I wasn't physically prepared for clocking 200 miles. My muscles fared fine, and mentally I was fit, but now the rest of my body is fighting back.

The problem is I don't know what's wrong. I just know that when I go on easy rides - completely flat, less than 15 miles, and slow - I experience sharp pain in my right knee. It seems the less obvious parts of my knee - the shadowy connective tissues and tendons - are obviously displeased about something.


It's not like I've been ignoring the pain; the last 30 miles of TOSRV was a special kind of hell, in which I had to learn to pedal half as fast using the force of the left side of my body only, riding into a nasty headwind in the home stretch. All the while feeling the weakness of my right knee with every stroke, not knowing at all why this was happenning to me.


To try to get a real diagnosis, I have an appointment with an orthopedist, but that's not reassuring; I keep thinking, what if I have to get off my bike permanently? This is the first sport where I've felt at home - and free - on my bike; running never worked because my feet got too hot, snowboarding was too damn scary (and painful; who wants to be black and blue everytime they go to have some fun?), and few people actually want to play tennis with me without making it a match - competition I can't mentally handle.


Worse yet, what if I can't serve in Malawi with the Peace Corps, where biking might just be the main everday mode of transportation? Where will I be then? Sure, I could wait for another assignment to come along in a few months, but I can't - and don't want - to keep working as an intern at CHEJ forever.


This is a change I obviously haven't yet come to terms with. But the conclusion hasn't yet been drawn, so I'll have to wait and see.

My First Week: A Non-Profit Primer

Here are a few amusing things learned my first week on the job at CHEJ:

• Celebrity is an important thing in the world of non-profits. It behooves an organization to be founded by or peopled by celebrities - everyone wants to be near to them in case some star power rubs off. But also important are celebrity donors, who flock to fancy donor events in big cities to show their support for the cause. Who would have thought my first staff meeting would include a discussion of who's networked with the likes of Brooke Shields, Ralph Nader, and even Hillary?

• Everyone does everything. I'm not just an intern, you know; I'm going to play toxicologist and organizer, too. This will probably be mostly good; first, I won't get bored from being boxed in too tightly, and second, I'll have a more well-rounded set of skills when I leave.

• Staff all seem to know someone who served in or who is currently serving in the peace corps. That means lots of good stories and advice for me! Best so far is my co-worker who built her own greenhouse and quit her PC job-function as an environmental educator to better serve the needs of the community. As she put it, "It's not like they would actually fire you."

• Environmental organizations take running a green office seriously. This means printing and copying with soy-based ink on recycled/reused paper, 100% donated and reused office furniture, a moratorium on paper, plastic, and styrofoam kitchen supplies, and a strictly enforced recycling policy. Needless to say, I'm pleased.

• Public transportation is marvelous. I can knit, I can read all manner of publications, I can mouth the words to old Juanes and Tears for Fears songs, and I can people-watch. It's a relaxing way to wake up or wind down, and not having to worry about terrible snow traffic is amazing. But, you say, this is not limited to non-profit orgs-- and this is true! But it's a first for me, so I say it counts.
  

Some semblance of a plan

This update from the employment front:

I've been nominated to serve as a science teacher in the Peace Corps on an assignment departing in June (the earliest I could get)! My country hasn't been identified yet, but my recruiter has identified and placed me in a very large region of a developing continent in need of a volunteer. I contacted a former volunteer through a friend at CMU to learn more about her experience. Basically, she had an awesome time, falling in love with her [now] husband through letters during her service, felt she was an important and appreciated part of a community where she is still remembered, and she got in some all expenses-paid travel. By way of insuring that I'm pumped for my service opportunity, she pointed out some benefits of being a PC teacher that I hadn't thought of before:

• Teachers are very well-appreciated and given respect, as they are much less abundant; you know your work will have a positive community impact.
• Teaching is a well-defined set of skills that makes it easier to get a handle on what your job function is. Job satisfaction tends to be higher than other volunteers.
• You get the summer off, so you can travel far and wide, work on secondary projects of interest, or both!
• Your students will remember what you taught them long after you leave; sustainable learning and practices due to your efforts is virtually guaranteed!
  

Next steps:
Completing some very detailed health paperwork to get comprehensive clearance, and receiving my official invitation (equivalent to a job offer) to serve. Also, I'm going to look into attending some events with my parents to get them more comfortable with the idea of 27 months abroad, as well as getting them in contact with other parents of past/present PC volunteers.

In the meantime, for the next 7 months or so I'll be working as an intern on the BE SAFE campaign at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice in the DC metro area. I'm jumping at the chance to work at a Non-Governmental Org and to concentrate on something close to my heart: hazardous waste! The basic goal is to protect health via pollution prevention (P2) policy and publication work. I'll probably get some experience in relevant environmental policy (RCRA/TOSCA/etc) and have fun researching and learning all kinds of details about waste facilities and how we unwittingly (uncaringly?) harm ourselves when we 'just throw it away'.

Take home message: There IS no "away," folks. Except for when I get on a plane in June for 27 months service off the continent of N. America - that reasonably qualifies as 'far away.' But by no means will I discourage anyone from visiting.

Done with School, Snapshot of China

Every time I think of it, I can't help but marvel at how it is to be finished with the school system after 19 years of going to class, long hours with textbooks, taking notes, dealing with new teachers, and meeting classmates for work and play. After being in such a stiff and well-defined system, I feel a bit floaty out here in this world where there are a huge variety of possible choices one could make. It's great to be free enough to reconnect with friends in the area, though - and soon, I'll be across the country to see the California side of the family for a kiddie birthday party!

After such a preamble, I'm posting an excerpt from one of my PC essays, for entertainment and for show. This is one ingredient in one such possibility for the future. I write about my two weeks in China, which I visited five years ago.

"I learned to bring toilet paper with me, to tolerate trash on the streets and to remain (relatively) calm on chaotic highways teeming with bikes and rickshaws operating independent of any apparent traffic laws. It wasn’t a freewheeling kind of integration that my friend and I eased ourselves into, but more of a cautious one; awareness for my own safety seemed suddenly closely linked to my decisions. At the same time, I felt sympathetic toward the people who lived there—the old huotong neighborhoods seemed a tragic place to live if lung-crippling coal was the most widely-used fuel for cooking and heating available, and the ugly practice of land-reclamation continued to leave its mark on the local mountains, all in the name of low-cost capital development. The smog coloring the sunset gray was the suspect in the case of my own respiratory ailment that developed after only 4 or 5 days. Water was also a huge problem, as every bottle-toting tourist knows, but 300 million residents will never be truly adapted to a water table contaminated by human waste. Chinese behaviors were discouraging, but what I took away was this: there probably weren’t better options readily available, and my ability to recognize such inequities could be a means to help. In China, health risks and environmental deterioration have a real, tangible meaning in a way that’s more often talked about than experienced in the US."