Posts Tagged ‘experience’

1. Wishes you’ve all seen a child dying of a simple illness like dysentery or hunger firsthand.
2. Wishes he didn’t like NFL football because it takes so much time and provides him with very little.
3. Wishes he could tour several continents by bike but probably never will.
4. Wishes he could live in Europe, Africa or southeast Asia for a year or more.
5. Never wants to be any kind of superstar. He never wants 15 minutes of fame either.
6. Feels blessed to have meaningful and not-so-meaningful little tasks to do every day.
7. Never regrets leaving northern Indiana.
8. Once assisted in the birth of a child in his front yard and massaged the uterus of the woman to assist in the delivery of the placenta.
9. Once slept (or rather listened) in the adjacent room of a moaning, dying man. He aroused to the sound of crying.
10. Would rather burn out in his sixties or seventies rather than fade away in his nineties.
11. Rather be remembered for how he lived rather than how he died.
12. Doesn’t think he could do Peace Corps again.
13. Believes you should seek experience rather than living status quo.
14. Feels like others think he’s adventurous but doesn’t believe that he really is all that adventurous.
15. Believes that instead of throwing away everything, we should seek to repair broken things that we need.
16. Wants to know if he’s mentioned that he likes cigars and beer?
17. Totally supports the premises of the bible but thinks people take it too literally and leave out the stuff they don’t like.
18. Does not believe in just wars.
19. Believes that physical hardship is liberating.
20. Has felt better since he started his own website, expresses himself through it and gets totally random comments from anonymous people.
21. Doesn’t really like working out that much. His mind and body require it though.
22. Would love to follow in the footsteps of Wallace rather than Darwin. Darwin’s trip was obviously noteworthy but he would choose Wallace’s.
23. Is surprised to learn that people would think he idolizes a professional athlete (in cycling (LA)) over an extremely forward thinking individual like Thomas Jefferson.
24. Believes we should be stewards of our planet rather than users or destroyers of it.
25. Doesn’t want to climb the corporate ladder. It would take too much time away from his family. He is just glad that he is helping to make devices that help other people.

1. Thinks Americans and a lot of others around the world are missing life. They live behind glass (televisions and cars), veiled behind music in headphones, interact with others primarily through electronic media, behind the walls of their homes. Hence, www.biketofeel.com.
2. Does not fear or worry about dying very much. He as had a fulfilling life and has had far more meaningful experiences and opportunities than a lot of people.
3. Believes that individuals should make good, intelligent and informed decisions about how they interact in society before being required to interact a certain way by law.
4. Tries to live his life by the motto, ‘Do the right thing.’ He believes he should ask himself, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ on a daily basis even when making small decisions.
5. Had a hard time as a new father until he approached fatherhood with this objective: Try to teach your children how to live long, healthy lives even though they may be taken from you at any moment. That is all you can do.
6. Is learning how and strives to be a better father every day.
7. Really likes beer.
8. Thinks that a lot of people don’t understand him. He believes that his wife is not one of those people.
9. Would like to ‘retire’ in a few years and do ‘hands on’ work to help other people who haven’t had the opportunities that he has.
10. Really likes cigars.
11. Feels people vastly misjudge his character because of how he looks.
12. Has hope for the future.
13. Believes that war is fundamentally wrong. After all, why do we teach our children not to hit others.
14. Has few regrets about life. He’s made a lot of mistakes but has learned from them and moved on.
15. Believes that most people in his line of work (medical device regulatory affairs) are pretty weird and anal retentive. He maintains that he is normal.
16. Thinks all people inherently want to take the path of least resistance. But he thinks people have the cognitive ability to instead do what’s right. He would like people to use this cognitive ability more frequently.
17. Would like to be a vegetarian and is working hard at it. He feels it’s very hard though with a very carnivorous wife and daughter.
18. Believes that he should walk the world a humble man. He likes to substitute the word ‘bike’ for ‘walk’ in the previous sentence.
19. Believes fear is the pathway to evil.
20. Feels like the band camp girl from the movie ‘American Pie’ when he talks about his Peace Corps experience in Haiti . He’s apologizes for talking about it so much.
21. And his wife are building a house in Haiti that overlooks provincial capital of the Gran D’Anse and the Caribbean Sea .
22. Wishes he was better at brushing his kids’ teeth and reading a book to them before bed. He really doesn’t like doing either. He’d rather just sing to them but he doesn’t remember very many songs from childhood.
23. Had to finally get glasses this year. He bought the biggest, blackest dorkiest looking frames he could find just to spite his eyes. He is disappointed that people now call him Clark Kent or Superman because he looks like him/them. He is also disappointed that he agrees with their assessment.
24. Wishes he could just shave his head instead of cutting his hair but he realizes that his head looks too small anyway.
25. Once fell asleep in the co-pilots’ seat of a small commercial passenger aircraft and woke up to find his face only inches from pushing the yoke forward.
26. Is an overachiever and listed 26 things: Doesn’t love bikes, he loves biking.

I will soon be adding journal entries and letters from my service in Peace Corps Haiti from 1999-2001. Some journal entries may be graphic so I advise caution in choosing to read them.

I recommend starting at the beginning and reading in chronological order. Click here to start at the beginning of my service. Read from the bottom of the page up.

Hello, one and all. Should by my final group e-mail assuming everything goes well.

Anyway, Ernante and I arrived in P-au-P this morning in the pouring rain – thanks to Michelle. Said goodbyes to everyone during the last three of four days. Had parties the last three nights. I think we’ll take a break tonight. Everyone cried a ton including my little brother Misses, he’s 23. I didn’t cry and Ernante only cried once. She is in much better spirits than I would have predicted. She’s joking and enjoying watching tv in the hotel now. I hope she’ll wash some clothes this afternoon too.

I’m at the office catching up with all of the staff. Going to try to get some money for my stay in P-au-P. Shouldn’t be a problem. I have plenty left from my service if they don’t give me any. We are going for Ernante’s visa interview on Thursday. I’m pretty nervous about the interview because if they don’t give her a visa I have no idea what we will do. I really don’t think we wil have a problem as I spoke to an interviewer in the consulate and he said whether or not it was him that will do the interview, we will be treated well. He also said that as long as the birth and marriage certificates apper to be legitimate, which they are, we won’t have a problem and will receive the visa the same day. We still can’t help but worry. Uncertainty is a killer.

So, I suppose if Ernante receives the visa this won’ be my last e-mail. Expect an e-mail on Friday. Until then, take care.

Mason

Well, only have 5 days until I go to P-au-P for the last as a PCV. I think it has passed the time when I needed to return to the States. I am thoroughly sick of this place. Although, I think it is good that I am leaving while I’m sick of it. That way I won’t feel like returning any time soon.

Anyway, on the 6th we will travel to P-au-P. On the 8th Ernante has her interview at the American consulate. Then we will just stay in P-au-P until the 16th, when we fly back to the States. We would come back if it wasn’t for me having to be in P-au-P on the 13th for three days of medical observations before I can COS. The long stay in P-au-P won’t be bad though. I think Kris will be coming in to visit with us and Mike and Wisline will be there too, since they are going back on the 16th too.

I just heard something that really ticked me off and provides evidence for a theory I hold about Haitian culture. Michelin was talking about Josh Bean’s (PCV) fiancé. She was saying how she and already passed the exam (the baccalaureate) at age 21. Well, supposedly, she (Fedya) composed with one of her cousins who told Michelin that Fedya wouldn’t let her copy off of her exam. So, Michelyne said Fedya was a selfish individual because she passed and didn’t let her cousin cheat of her so that she could pass too. The is a recurring idea throughout Haitian culture: “If you have something I don’t, then you should give me some so we can both have.” It’s like a system of unorganized communism. And it works only slightly worse than organized communism. I have never been more pro-capitalism than I am now.