14. January 2009 by Fortunato Velasquez.

Learning how to maintain my new website under my daughter Andrea’s tutelage is an exercise that will require much instruction over the five weeks before I leave Seattle for my assignment.  It will be necessary for me to absorb all this new info in small chunks.  All my resource persons will be here and I will be there so I must learn to be as self-reliant as possible.  Today - writing posts and transferring all the info in my old computer onto my new Lenovo X60 ThinkPad.  My next lesson will be learning how to post photos from my new digital camera.  This Peace Corps assignment is definitely an enhanced learning curve in more ways than one.  Just what the doctor ordered.  Thanks Dr. Menzies, thanks Dr. Simpson, for helping me through the rigorous physical and dental examination processes.  The Peace Corps’ qualification and selection process is demanding.  Only about one in three applicants becomes a trainee; and 9 out of 10 trainees successfully complete pre-service training and are sworn-in as Volunteers.

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14. January 2009 by Fortunato Velasquez.

It begins! … December 23rd, the day. You have been assigned to Honduras, the Peace Corps Placement Specialist informed me on the day before Christmas Eve: welcome news after 14 months. I would like my readers to accompany me on a two-year journey sure to stimulate a thinking person’s interest. My plan is to blog narrative and one photo weekly as I begin my duties with the Honduras Ministry of Health. As a member of a public health team I will be addressing the issues of HIV/AIDS education and prevention as a Health Educator: estimated date of departure from the U.S.- February 24, 2009. My family is, of course, inherent to all my steps. Welcome as well, the accompaniment of friends, and colleagues at Seattle’s Pike Market Medical Clinic, Swedish Medical Center, HealthPoint Community Health Centers, Seattle-King County Public Health Dept, and California’s Tulare County Public Health Dept. To all reading this blog: Welcome.

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