How I did it: I travel alot.  In the past five years I've visited almost 50 countries.  But, I always felt as though I was just "tasting" them instead of really sinking my teeth in.  So I decided to give Peace Corps a shot.  Twenty-six months.  I'm in a village (Charles Hill) out west almost into Namibia.  It's remote. The nearest actual town is 120 miles away.  It's desert. We are in the Kalahari.  My job is called Peace Corps volunteer to the District AIDS Coordinator (DAC).  It's an office gig.  We oversee the flow of money for various HIV/AIDS programs in the district.

Botswana is a frustrating country.  HIV/AIDS threatens to virtually wipe out the population.  And the disease could be stopped OVERNIGHT.  But the people are resistant to the behaviour change needed to do it.  People don't want their behaviour changed. They want it accepted.

Be that as it may, I am very comfortable living in a non-US environment.  It's hard now to imagine going back permanently.  I think I may not.  I've met someone and we intend to spend our lives together.  After  we leave Botswana in 2010 we are going to China to study Kung-Fu and Tai Chi for a year.  After that perhaps live in Vietnam (she is part-Vietnamese). 

I am 59 years old and don't want to waste my good years in a house with a white picket fence, sitting in a rocking chair yelling at the kids to get off my damn yard! (When I did have a yard I insisted the neighbourhood kids play on it.  Grass grows back.)

Lessons & tips: 1. When you go to another country leave "yourself" at home. 
2. Over here I am the foreigner.

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Mar 04, 2009, 11:52PM PST | 1 comment | 1 cheer