June 11, 2003 - Palm Beach Post: PCV Amy Dunson helps set up a library in Honduras

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Honduras: Peace Corps Honduras: The Peace Corps in Honduras: June 11, 2003 - Palm Beach Post: PCV Amy Dunson helps set up a library in Honduras

By Admin1 (admin) on Monday, June 16, 2003 - 9:20 pm: Edit Post

PCV Amy Dunson helps set up a library in Honduras





Read and comment on this story from the Palm Beach Post on Honduras PCV Amy Dunson who has been assigned to work with the local government, helping them set up the library -- which now consists of one shelf with 20 books -- and organize the land tax office at:

Taking the Peace Corps challenge*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



Taking the Peace Corps challenge

By Emily Minor, Palm Beach Columnist
Thursday, June 12, 2003

There she was last summer, making her way around Nantucket, popping into the groovy bookstore and the groovy coffee shop, meeting her groovy friends for dinner.

There she is this summer, getting a $3 haircut, wondering about the electricity, getting lectured on what to do if the banditos jump on the bus.

Amy Dunson, 27, Santaluces High School Class of 1993, graduated from college, took a job in the Northeast and started looking for the bigger picture -- a search that led her to Honduras, where she's been working as a member of the Peace Corps since February.

"We had some apprehension," said her father, Roger Dunson of Lake Worth. "I mean... wonder if she gets some kind of mysterious disease down there? You worry."

But so far, so good.

Dunson's become savvy at getting to an Internet cafe, laughing online, instant messaging and writing lengthy journal entries detailing everything from a bad night with some taquitas to her early frustrations on the job in the town of Santa Rosa de Copan.

Dunson's Feb. 7 journal entry, accessible at www.triptosomewhere.com:

Keeping up with 'Bachelor'

I will NEED to know the following, while I'm off gallivanting throughout my new country...

Who does Joe Millionaire choose? Who does the Bachelorette choose? And do they get married? What's going on with the Ben and J.Lo saga? Who's the Mole? What's the status of Ross and Rachel? How about a synopsis of the episodes I'll be missing? No, I can't wait to see them on reruns! How are the Braves doing?

And most importantly... What's the ranking of the Seminoles this season?

At least she's still got her priorities straight.

Dunson, whose mother, Laurel Martin, lives in Boynton Beach, was working for the office that regulates exterior architecture on Nantucket. "And I just thought there had to be something else out there in the world other than if someone's trim color was approved," she said during our online chat. She interviewed with the Peace Corps in Boston two years ago.

"I really didn't explore anything else," she says. "Even though the only reference I had for the Peace Corps was the movie Dirty Dancing."

Electricity off more than on

Now she lives in a town with two telephones, one of which seldom works. Getting to an Internet connection is a two-hour bus ride. She washes her dishes in the bathroom since her kitchen is nothing more than a spigot jutting out of the wall. And although her Spanish is good, when she first arrived in town she says she felt "like a mute."

This month, she started reading the first Harry Potter book, in Spanish.

June 1 journal entry:

I think the electricity has been off more than it has been on. I think it has rained more than it hasn't. I think I have slept more than I have been awake. I think I have memorized Life Is Beautiful, the English subtitles, anyways, maybe I will work on the Italian part next.

Amy Dunson has not one regret, she says -- except maybe she should have brought more Dove milk chocolates. She's been assigned to work with the local government, helping them set up the library -- which now consists of one shelf with 20 books -- and organize the land tax office. Her tour lasts two years.

The island of Nantucket this isn't. There's no Leah's Fudge Shop, no Bartlett's Ocean View Farm.

And for her, for now, that's a good thing.

"I can't imagine being in Nantucket right now," she says. "Even though I miss it so much."

emily_minor@pbpost.com

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