getting there.

jumping through lots of hoops, filling out passport and visa forms (the precision of which makes me nervous - i hate red tape paperwork and stuff, it seems like such minor mistakes could get my application rejected), insurance forms, travel details, powers of attorney, etc. i applied to correspond with an american elementary school classroom and it says that i can request a certain teacher if i have one in mind. i can't think of my elementary school teachers, or if i'd want to write back and forth with any of them, but i was thinking of my friend's mother in cincinnati, or a childhood best friend's mother (who is a principal but could probably set me up with someone in her school). i think random would be best.

i've been spending a couple hours a day reading either a. about madagascar, b. malagasy language, c. malagasy news, or d. health related / hiv information. i've been thinking about approaching someone i went to high school with who is now a paramedic to teach me some of the basics he knows about more in-depth aid for injuries. the way it sounds, i will often be mistook for a doctor and brought various sorts of injuries and illnesses. i don't want to let anybody down.

i've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a representative of the united states. i am american. i hope that i'm really allowed to be me, not according to malagasy restrictions or taboos, but according to the peace corps. i want to be free to say that i disagree with american foreign policy and with our shameless capitalism. i want to be free to tell them, "i am an american and i am an anarchist." because i am an american. not all americans are who you'd expect to join the peace corps. the peace corps to me is bigger than the government which i despise, and even bigger than it thinks it is. it's so policy driven, it's so country-based.

what the peace corps means to me is this: me, steven mingus, an individual person, is going to go and share experiences with some yet unnamed and unknown people in their home, and its going to affect not the united states and madagascar but me and them, personally. people get caught up in how large the world is that they forget how very small it really is.

madagascar!