Cross Cultural Solutions

The largest part of my trip will be spent living and volunteering in Ayacucho, Peru. In the three months that I will be there, I will be an international volunteer. I will not know my exact "job" until a couple of weeks before I start, due to the fact that the programs that CCS works with have evolving needs and levels of support based on the time of the year. Some of the options that I will have are:

- Caring for infants & children

- Teaching English

- Teaching Children

- Caring for the Elderly

- Caring for people with special needs

- Working towards woman's empowerment

My program director told me I will have a high possibility of working in a setting with children or in a classroom due to my educational background, however I hope that I get to volunteer in a few different locations to see a broad view of what life is like in the mountains of Peru.

Cross Cultural Solutions is a Non- Profit International Volunteer Program, to remain a non-profit I will be paying for my expenses, so that I am not putting a financial strain on the local community. I will be paying a program fee that includes the cost of my room and board, food, transportation, cleaning staff, and 24 hour security. If you would like to help me with my program fee, please follow the link below to my sponsor page on the Cross Cultural Solutions website.

https://my.crossculturalsolutions.org/sponsor/sponsorsearchpage.aspx

Wheres in the world is Alexandria?

To help keep myself organized I created an online calendar. I thought I would post it here if you would like to know what stops I will be making in South America. If you have been to any of the places that I will be visiting, please pass on any advice or must sees.

Click on the arrows (the ones between the 'Today" button and where it says the current month) to see other months.

A year of being a nomad

I have not really been in one place long enough to call a place home. I have stuff packed into my room at my parents, I have taken over a garage with more things from college and living on my own. I have left all of that in Washington and have been on a bit of a continental US trip since I graduated in June. In the last 6 months I have lived in 3 different cities and two different time zones. I took a nannying job until January that required me to move to Philadelphia, PA and Miami, FL.

Living this nomadic lifestyle is going to continue for the next 5 months as well. (5 months is the minimum, we will see where life takes me next...) I am leaving on a red eye flight for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 8th. I will meet up with my best friend, Jody, and one of her friends, Allegra, to travel around Brazil for a month. I will then go with Jody to Chile where we will meet up with our other best friend, Christina and say bye to Jody. From there Christina and I might visit Argentina, details are still being worked out. When Christina leaves I will head to Peru. On March 7th I will fly into the small mountain town of Ayacucho. I will be living and working as a volunteer there for 3 months.

If that doesn't sound crazy enough, just wait until you hear some of the details of the trip. To peak your curiosity of what is to come lets just say a section of the trip entails 3 very American girls enrolling in survival camp in the Amazon Rainforest. I am thinking that if you think Man vs. Wild is entertaining we might be able to give him a good run for his money :)

Let the adventure begin!

Welcome!

Thank you for checking out my blog! Today I enrolled as a Cross Cultural Solutions Volunteer. This is the organization that I will be working with while I volunteer in Ayacuaho, Peru for 12 weeks starting March 7, 2010. Before I start my volunteer job I will be traveling around with my best friend Jody.

I though that having a blog would be a wonderful way to keep all my friends and family updated on what I am doing in South America. I will keep this updated with what I am planning on doing before I go and while I am down there I will let everyone know of my adventures.