Long Time, No Hear

Well, I've been gone for a while now. My computer crashed back in May and I had to get a new laptop. It was fate that I got a new one because I would've never been able to get a new one at any other time on my crappy budget.

Since my last entry, I left Women for Women International (www.womenforwomen.org ), but I remain a donor. I am now sponsoring a sister in Rwanda and her name is Vestine Mukangwije. I wrote my first letter to her and I hope that she gets it soon. I will sponsor her for one year, where she will take job skills training classes and learn about her rights as a woman and a citizen. After one year, she'll graduate and hopefully start her own income-generating enterprise. I'm so excited about being her sister. She had 9 kids, but one of them is not alive. I hope that she'll feel comfortable enough to tell me more about this in her letter.

As for the women of Women for Women Int'l, they're still my friends. I really loved my time working there and I still keep in contact with many of the women there. Now I work at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington as a program assistant. This is where the State Dept. trains it's diplomats/foreign service officers. It's a great environment to work in, but I know that I won't be there forever. #1, because I'm a contractor and #2, because I am looking for a government job. I have my plans though. It's the perfect place for me to transition. I hope to spend this Fall applying to grads schools that offer MFAs in Creative Writing and possibly taking the Foreign Service Exam. So far, I've made some great contacts at this place and I know that I'll have some great recommendations.

Writing. Yes, everyone's been asking me about this. I had planned to take at least two weeks off between jobs, but FSI came and I got offered the job the same day that I interviewed, so I couldn't turn it down. So now, my dream of having a chunk of time dedicated to writing is gone now, BUT it's no matter, I'm trying to make more time to write everyday. Since I last wrote, I took a class on screenplay writing and I've made very small progress on writing my screenplay, "Brenda." I keep in contact with my instructor, Daniel Christian. He says that if you can make it to page two, then you'll stick to it. So, I've made it to page 3 and realized that I needed some writing software. The formatting for a screenplay is TOO difficult to worry about throughout the writing of 90-120 pages. So, I bought "Writer's Dreamkit." The cool thing about this software is that it was only $40 after a discount and I can use it to write a screenplay, a novel OR short stories. I'm excited about writing right now. Because my Microsoft Word docs weren't salvaged from my last computer (because I was an idiot and I didn't back up my files), I am now having to retype all of the stories into this computer. This is good because now it's like I'm looking at The Adventures of Bianca Sukiyama with a fresh perspective, so look for more on that later... My biggest concern is creating a portfolio of work for my application to the schools for MFA in Creative Writing programs. Wish me luck!

Oh, there's so much to catch up on. Next, I'll write more about my plans to return to the Dominican Republic (by popular demand according to my friend and journalist, William Estevez, and Chicha and Manolo, my adopted parents from back there). I'll also write about my friend, Sachi Imai, and her visit to the States AND hopefully, if I make it to Tennessee this weekend, I'll have some pictures from that.