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Local resident returns from Peace Corps tour of duty
By Michael Hubbard, Contributing Writer
Melanie Bittle spent 10 years as a financial analyst prior to her tour of duty with the Peace Corps, and before she left, quit her job, sold her car and her house.
“I had always wanted to work with my Spanish, and I was really tired of my old job. I was feeling really unfulfilled, but in the end [joining the Peace Corps] was probably the best step I could've taken. It opened a lot of doors for me internationally,” said Bittle a 1992 Newman Smith High School graduate and 1996 UT-Austin graduate.
On July 4, Bittle returned home from a two-year tour of duty in Nicaragua with the U.S. Peace Corps. She spent those two years teaching high school students the basic business skills they need to own and manage small businesses. She also taught Agro-business to farmers, as well as teaching HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, life skills, and reproductive healthcare to women's groups and "at-risk" youth groups.
The Peace Corps arranges a home-stay for participants during their training and the first six weeks of their tours.
“I probably spent close to 50-percent of my time, almost all of my first year, in a one bedroom house but then I switched back to renting a room from a family... the house I lived in had previously been owned by a couple from the Corps so it was economical for them, but for me it was just too expensive,” she said.
Bittle returned home Friday and spent Independence Day with her family in Carrollton.
“We barbecued ribs and watched the Fourth of July show, the one in Washington, on television. I really wanted to go see fireworks, but the Carrollton show got canceled this year.”
Bittle plans to enter George Washington University Graduate School of International Peace and Conflict Resolution in September.
“I started out with the intention of learning to speak Spanish fluently and learning to live in another culture but I gained so much more. I got hands-on experience in international development, politics and economics and made life-long friendships, both Nicaraguan and American,” she said. “It was exposure that goes with living in a third-world country as one of its residents and not just a visitor. My world view has changed, I now feel more informed.”
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