Westley Winks
My /now page
This page serves to give you an idea of what I am currently working on, in no particular order. This is inspired by the "Now page" movement created by Derek Sivers. In The Anatomy of Equanimity system, these are my current projects and shifts.
Promoting World Peace and Friendship
I am in my second year of service in Morocco as a Peace Corps volunteer. It has been such a wonderful and difficult experience that I wouldn't change for anything. I am here, in part, to increase cross-cultural understanding. I participate in meaningful holidays, have meals with my Moroccan friends and family, and speak the same language they speak (as best as I can).
Blogging about Morocco and My Peace Corps Service
I started up this blog and use it as a space to share Moroccan culture with an American audience. It is a collection of personal stories about things that I have witnessed or experienced during my time here. If you'd like to sign up to get the next posts in your email inbox, input your email here.
This goes along with the above quest. They are fun to write but I feel quite a lot of Resistance because I want to tell these stories right and the perfectionism gets in the way.
Teaching Life Skills
I attended a training with a local counterpart (and host sister) put on by Peace Corps called Passport to Success. It is a life skills program that is part of an initiative by International Youth Foundation. The goals of this program are to help young people develop personal competencies, develop skills they need for successful employment, and engage in community-based projects. My counterpart and I prepare one-hour long sessions and facilitate them in Arabic twice per week. Sessions include things like responsibility, listening, problem-solving, and leadership.
This is a tough one but it has been the most effective project I've been a part of thus far. Thankfully, I have a wonderful counterpart that helps me with the language when talking about these high-level, abstract ideas.
Writing Book Notes
I have been having a blast with this. I had quite a bit of free time last summer and was reading a lot. I wanted some way to engage more with what I was reading and not forget the things that I learn. I read almost exclusively on my Kindle and highlight and note things as I read. At the end, I use my custom Python script to extract all those notes and put them into a markdown file. Then I go through the highlights and write more structured notes in Obsidian and [post them to my website]({{< relref "books" >}}). For non-fiction, I try my best to put things in my own words and bold the really important bits to make the note scannable with the eyes.
For fiction, I do more of a book review structure and am loving it. I hadn't written anything for a fiction book since high school and absolutely hated it then. I use a rating system called CAWPILE that gives me a nice structure that I need to think more deeply about the fiction I am reading.
Advancing Women's Economic Empowerment through Digital Literacy (WEE-DL)
Two other volunteers, two Peace Corps staff members, and myself are working to put together a two-day workshop for a group of volunteers and their counterparts. The goal is to build the capacity of both volunteers and counterparts to implement WEE-DL activities in their individual sites. The long-term outcome of that is Moroccan youth and women have the digital skills they need to "equitably and safely participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic opportunities."
Thinking About My Career/Life After Peace Corps
I've been conducting informational interviews with people who have interesting jobs that I might like to have. These are purely just to get insider information of what it is like working at different organizations and roles so that I can be proactive when it comes to choosing a career next year. I am looking for a career that allows me to:
- Make a contribution to positive social/human impact
- Learn
- Use the unique skills that I have earned
If you are reading this and know someone with a career that fits this, I would love to chat with them! Contact me.
Last updated 2024-04-13.