Peace Corps Invitation

I received the invitation in the mail today.

It seems I have officially been invited with what I was nominated for! I will be in Morocco in the "small business development" program, leaving in early September.

Since I'm not trained in business, I was a little wary with the title "small business development" but I also half expected that. The details in the rest of the booklet talk about working with small, community based artisans/artisan groups improve their businesses. This includes: access to new markets, identification of product, product quality control, training in basic business and financial management including inventory control, product pricing, credit and marketing plans, access to new information and technologies.

Two examples they gave of activities implemented by previous SBD volunteers were developing or enhancing an existing web page for start up artisan enterprises, and transcribing certain oral traditions in handicraft or artisan product design into written/electronic form to help preserve the traditional designs.

This sounds like it will be challenging and exciting for me. It is a little out of what I do, but I think I can appreciate a lot of this from the point of view of the artist, and having had to market my own work.

I have a lot to think about now, and for the next couple of months as I prepare.