A little bit about me...

Hi my name is Raechelle, and I lived in the secular Muslim country of Azerbaijan as a Youth Development Volunteer for the Peace Corps for three years and three months. I am now the Administrator of the official Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Friends of Azerbaijan group. As such, I am working to promote Peace Corps third goal of helping promote a better understanding of Azerbaijani people to Americans.

I created this blog as a way for future Peace Corps Volunteers, my friends and family, and Americans in general to understand what life as a Peace Corps Volunteer is like. As part of the pilot program for Youth Development in Azerbaijan, my work in Azerbaijan was diverse to say the least. I took on a role as youth educator, mentor and promoter. I helped with academic advising, established informal youth service clubs, encouraged youth to be proactive in their communities, promoted volunteer-ism and making a positive contribution to their communities.

I served as an extended volunteer, meaning that I served a third year instead of the traditional two year and three month service. During that time, I got married to my community counterpart and embraced many parts of the Azerbaijani culture. It is my hope to provide you a sense of understanding of life as a Peace Corps volunteer, life in Azerbaijan, and a bit about Azerbaijani culture through my experiences. Please feel free to comment or email me if you have any questions or suggestions for topics you'd like to hear more about.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Did you say more peace corps?

Hey everyone, long time no update... I know, I know, I'm horrible with this. But better late tan never right? Just a quick one today because this one is important. There is now a bill going through Congress to expand the Peace Corps. If you have facebook and would like to read more, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2208730415&topic=6300

If you don't have facebook, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and type in the search function H.R. 1066 - basically it's a bill introduced by a Congressman Sam Farr (CA-17) titled "Peace Corps Expansion Act of 2009" which aims to get more funding for PC for the next few years and roughly double the readjustment allowance based of months of service for returned volunteer types. (In other words, it helps us to actually be able to afford to eat, and live.) There are currently 40 co-sponsors and it's sitting in the House Foreign Affairs committee. If you're interested in writing your representative in Congress to support this bill I would consider it a personal favor for me. Heck, if you email me, I'll even find out how to contact your representative for you if you don't want to do the leg work yourself.

Also, I got this sent to me and thought it might help a few of you to see just how Azerbaijan compares to other countries around the world. If this gives you a good idea of the type of country this is, Azerbaijan and Iran are the only two dominately Shiite muslim nations in the world. But when you comepare the two, it's apples to beef stakes. A friend sent this survey on religion across countries and across US states. Some of you might find it fun to read and to learn that accoring to the Gallup survey;

1. Those from Alabama are as religious as Iranians
2. Those from Vermont are as religious as the Swiss
3. Georgians in Atlanta are as religious as Georgians of Tbilisi!

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&attid=0.1&thid=11f8429586441fb3&mt=application%2Fpdf&pli=1

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