Veintisiete

I just got back from attending our Peace Corps summer camp Mid-Service Conference in Quito. The conference itself was asi asi; if I never hear the words “community banks” or “building organizational capacity” it will be too soon. The fun part was having everybody in our Omnibus under the same roof, as some of us haven’t seen in each other since last fall. We recently had another volunteer ET, so we’re down to thirty-six from an original forty-five. When all of us are in one hostel, it does feel a little bit like summer camp, especially when the boys decided to run around in their boxers…at 3am. At least the hostel had hot water this time.

And, I turned 27 (veintisiete) on Saturday. Wow, that seems old. To celebrate, a group of friends threw me a little party at a great club in Quito. I was ecstatic that so many people came out! A good time was had by all.

By the numbers:

Number of rose bouquets Nate bought me: 1
Number of rose bouquets Nate sat on in the cab: 1
RPCVs from Peace Corps Bolivia: 2

Number of drinks Kendra paid for all night, thanks to the doorman: 0

Percentage of people who knew the words to La Camisa Negra: 95

Number of times Nathalie yelled out, “Viva la Cumpleañera!” to me:7
Number of times I was dragged into the middle of the circle to dance: 15+

Percentage of the night that Alicia spent shaking it on the dance floor: 99.9
Number of guys with a Jesus shirt that tried to dance with Alicia: 1

Average temperature on the dance floor, in Celsius: 36

Attendees over 50 years of age: 2
Ratio of people of Asian descent to the rest of the group: 3.5 to 21.5

Ratio of hip-hop & gringo music played to salsa/meringue: 2 to 1
Percentage of us who danced until the lights came on: 80

Cost, in USD, of a slice of pizza after the bar closed down: 1
Percentage of people seriously chuchaqui the next day: 100

Thank you to the staff of Bungalow 6 in Quito for being so generous. And thanks to my wonderful friends from Omnibus 98 – me hicieron sentir muy, muy feliz.

I Am a Community Organizer

You know what really bothers me about Sarah Palin? Besides the fact that she: is anti-abortion even in cases of rape or incest, opposes federal funding for health care, supports the death penalty, opposes gun control legislation, wants to drill in ANWR, does not believe that global warming is attributable to man-made factors, and is currently under an ethics investigation at home? Aside from how she advocates abstinence-only education in schools while her own teenage daughter is pregnant, wants librarians to ban books that she finds “transgressive” and has frighteningly little governing experience, other than being mayor of Wasilla, AK (population at the time: 5,469) and governor of Alaska for less than two years. But hey, according to John McCain, Palin’s being Alaska governor, means that she has “foreign policy experience” because, “Alaska is right next to Russia.” You couldn’t make this crap up if you tried.

But what’s really got me ticked off? I’m angry because in her speech at the RNC Convention, Palin sneered at Obama for being a community organizer. You know what? As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am a community organizer. And damn proud of it. We owe a woman’s right to vote, the civil rights movement, the labor movement, the environmental movement, and many other movements that have bettered the world to community organizers. To me, community organizing means helping people take, “control of their lives and their communities and trying to make things better for themselves.” PTA moms are community organizers. Pastors, imams, and rabbis are community organizers. Members of Rotary, Kiwanis, and the Key Club are community organizers. Those who go door to door registering voters are community organizers. People who run the soup kitchens and homeless shelters are community organizers.