November 27,
2008
This Blog is Closed
To save my Peace Corps career (if a two-year stint can be called a proper career), it is imperative I no longer post entries to my blog. I have learned the hard way that cultural sensibilities—no, a better word is sensitivities—cultural sensitivities exist which I can't avoid no matter how innocuous I believe my words to be. Honestly, I am not used to, nor have I been happy censoring myself, but was willing to do so. When that wasn't enough, I realized it was time to pull the plug. I wasn't being true to myself as a writer and to what I wanted to accomplish through the blog, which was to educate and entertain. Now I can write what I want. That's got to be the sliver lining I take away from this mess.
To my family, close friends and interested parties, you will still hear from me. If you don't fall into that category but would still like to hear about my exploits via email, simply post a comment to this entry with your email address. If I feel you won't turn me into the PC authorities, I'll add your name to the list. To everyone else who read Scribblings of a PC Volunteer, I thank you. I only wish we could have spent more time together.
Although blogless, I still have a lot to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
To save my Peace Corps career (if a two-year stint can be called a proper career), it is imperative I no longer post entries to my blog. I have learned the hard way that cultural sensibilities—no, a better word is sensitivities—cultural sensitivities exist which I can't avoid no matter how innocuous I believe my words to be. Honestly, I am not used to, nor have I been happy censoring myself, but was willing to do so. When that wasn't enough, I realized it was time to pull the plug. I wasn't being true to myself as a writer and to what I wanted to accomplish through the blog, which was to educate and entertain. Now I can write what I want. That's got to be the sliver lining I take away from this mess.
To my family, close friends and interested parties, you will still hear from me. If you don't fall into that category but would still like to hear about my exploits via email, simply post a comment to this entry with your email address. If I feel you won't turn me into the PC authorities, I'll add your name to the list. To everyone else who read Scribblings of a PC Volunteer, I thank you. I only wish we could have spent more time together.
Although blogless, I still have a lot to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Without
question the most difficult task I undertook as a volunteer involved closing my
blog, even though it wasn’t hitting the audience I had hoped it would. I had a
country counter widget on that blog and it surpassed 25 countries, maybe even 30, but
not all of my target audience—friends and family in the states—was reading it.
Some didn’t have time; a few told me going to the blog was too much trouble. Obviously,
some of my friends were lazier than I thought.
When I
set up the blog, Blogspot allowed me to notify some people every time I posted
an entry, but only ten. I wanted to have about 50 people notified. This impeded
the path to full enjoyment as many folks likely didn’t even know the blog
existed.
The next
email explains in detail the reason for closing the blog. I never exceeded the
level of anger I felt when writing it, prior to or afterwards. In fact, I can’t
remember another time I was angry at all in Kyrgyzstan. Disappointed often, but
I learned to live with that.
