Archives for 2015

Serving with the Peace Corps in Lesotho

May 21, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 29 Comments

IMG_20150517_140142182_HDR (3) — I’m wearing the Lesotho hat that my new Danish friend, Lone, brought over. She lived in Lesotho, South Africa

For years, I’ve been telling my friends that I would serve with the Peace Corps when my children were out of the house. It’s something I started talking about ten years ago, and last week, I received the invitation to serve in Lesotho, a small country in Southern Africa.

lesotho — Lesotho is known as the “Mountain Kingdom” and is the roundish, landlocked country in pink on the map.

Now that I’m divorced, and my three sons are independent, this is the perfect time for me to work as a primary education teacher in Africa.

I applied to serve last year in June, and was turned down in January. I was devastated, especially as I felt completely lost, and could not understand why this could happen to me. I’ve attended monthly Peace Corps meetings, including a Peace Corps event at Cal State Long Beach where the new Director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet, stated that the Peace Corps is hoping to increase the number of over 50-year-olds to serve.

After my rejection, the local recruiter encouraged me to reapply immediately. I did so the next day, updating my resume to include the Trinity College Cert-TeSOL course in London. Fortunately I’d been accepted after my interview in London in December 2014, to take the TESOL course starting on April 20th-May 15th, 2015. I needed a backup, in case the Peace Corps turned me down a second time.

The Peace Corps placement officer for Lesotho, interviewed me on February 27th, and almost 3 months later, I received an e-mail with an ‘invitation’ to serve; ironically, on the last day of my course in London.

Now I have a massive amount of paperwork to fill out, passports and visas, medical and dental exams, and finger-printing, etc. As long as all my medical and dental results are fine, I shall leave for Lesotho, on October 5th, 2015.

I cannot wait to start a completely new and challenging life in Africa. I realize this is not going to be easy, and it’s going to take a long time to adapt, as well as to learn the new language, (think clicking sound) of Sesotho. During the first 3 months you live with a host family and learn the local language.

At least it sounds easier than the Czech language that we had to learn during our first week of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other languages.) Watch video of Czech here if you’re interested.

Here is a local dish: Basotho Bashed Beef. The article says they eat horse meat, but only if the horse dies accidentally. They never kill horses for meat.

I would love to meet Prince Harry in Lesotho. He set up the Sentibale charity to help orphaned children in Lesotho. So many children are orphans due to the 3rd highest rate of HIV/AIDS in Lesotho.

Watch this video to see Prince Harry and the work he does in Lesotho.

Anyone been to Lesotho? Please leave a comment below.

Teach English Abroad with the Cert-TESOL

May 18, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 9 Comments

Zoe, Sue, Sonia, Logan and Chris — My classmates, and I’m the one kneeling in the middle.

I’ve been studying like a crazy woman for the past 4 weeks in order to teach English abroad with the Cert-TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate.

This is by no means an easy course. It’s a level 5, comparable in difficulty to the second year of an undergraduate degree crammed into 4 weeks. Now you’ll understand why I felt like a zombie fueled by caffeine and adrenaline.

My poor 57-year-old brain, almost died; and what made me realize that age has nothing to do with my ability to study and retain material, was the fact that the twenty-somethings on our course, were just as exhausted and complained even more than us boomer ladies.

So now that I can breathe again. I am happy to inform everyone that I passed the written and oral exam last week. I can use my TESOL certificate to teach English to foreign students anywhere in England, France, Italy, Spain, other European countries, as well as China, South Korea, Japan, South America… basically anywhere.

IMG_20150515_162124556 — My teachers, Rob Farag, far left and Jane Stevenson in black in the middle. Classmates eating a home-made chocolate and orange cake to celebrate

IMG_20150515_162616680_HDR — My new teacher friends: Zoe, Natasha, me and Sue to my right. A great group of Cert-TESOL women

I decided to take the Trinity College TESOL certificate in Greenwich, London, as it was much cheaper than the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course at UCI (University of California Irvine) close to my house which costs $5,750. This outrageous price does not even include room and board at the Ritz. It’s also a TEFL, and not a Trinity College Cert-TESOL. The TEFL is not accepted in many parts of Europe, which is why I opted for the Cert-TESOL.

Why not take the course in London where you get to experience other cultures, other sights, and study within a small class of 6 students rather than the larger class sizes in the U.S.

My course in London cost less with airfare, and an Airbnb studio apartment overlooking the Cutty Sark (see photo below) than the UCI course, and I made some wonderful new contacts, plus I got to sightsee and visit my memoir author friend Ian Mathie. Another blog post to follow.

IMG_20150501_052358943_HDR (1) — View of the Cutty Sark from my bedroom window at sunrise

So are you ready to teach abroad? If you have a question for me, please ask in the comments below. I shall get back to you. You can also e-mail me at: Sonia@soniamarsh.com

Reinventing Myself in Mid-Life

April 23, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 9 Comments

I’ve become a student again at age 57, and quite frankly, it feels a little weird. I eat, sleep, and hang my wet laundry in one 8×12 room, but I accept this as a new challenge; part of reinventing myself in mid-life.

After a thirty-six year–student to career woman to wife to mom and back to student gap–I discovered that unlike social media, student-life is not about connecting and sharing; it’s about becoming territorial. You see my brand new toilet paper roll shrank to half its original size after my three male roommates discovered it on the bathroom shelf. They obviously must keep theirs in the bedroom or else they don’t spend money on toilet paper.

So why would a woman my age, share a bathroom and a kitchen with three young men? Is that part of reinventing myself?

It’s not because I miss being a mom, nor because I envy Madonna who loves dating men in their twenties, and I certainly don’t enjoy the smell of curry and garlic at 11 p.m. when I’m trying to fall asleep. The truth is, I had no idea that my Airbnb in Greenwich, London, had a shared bathroom and kitchen. Now I know why I got such a good deal on this London rental.

Sonia Airbnb-1 — Bedroom/dining room/storage of food and bathroom items

In all fairness, the roommates have been quiet as they have exams coming up, and since I need to crack the whip and work hard myself in order to pass the Trinity College TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) exam, I am not too worried about my living situation. I shall get used to bringing all my stuff to the kitchen when I want to cook. At least we each have our own small fridge in our bedroom, so food will not “accidentally” disappear.

Since I found a gym close by, with nice showers and clean towels, I decided to get ready for school, at the gym. A short walk to Costa Coffee, and then I shall be alert for classes starting at 9:30 a.m, until 5:30 p.m. daily.

Reinventing myself in mid-life, requires being flexible, adaptable and “gutsy.” I hope you keep following me as I follow this journey and explore life-changing options.

Have you reinvented yourself in mid-life? If so was it a challenge?

Discover Greek Culture

April 20, 2015 by Sonia Marsh 6 Comments

100_3019 — Sonia Marsh standing in front of the Parthenon

Thanks to travel bloggers, Rebecca Hall, Marissa Tejada and Elena Sergeeva, I was able to experience a unique tour with Discover Greek Culture, a new tour operator in Greece, that specializes in offering archaeological, gastronomic, historical and artistic tours, to groups of 2-15 people maximum.

Their goal is to offer something more personal and interesting, and I certainly felt that during my half day tour of “Neoclassical Greece.” I learned some interesting facts about Queen Amalia, the first queen of Greece who was German, and not too happy about living in Greece. She missed Germany, and German butter, since Greeks only had olive oil, so she requested cows and goats to be sent to her, so she could have her butter churned.

We visited her royal gardens, and Queen Amalia had palm trees imported from the U.S. in the 19th century.

DGC_ATH_SIT_National-Garden_09 — Photo credit Discover Greek Tours

I was impressed with the knowledge of our guides, and the fact that Discover Greek Culture organized an aristocratic coffee and treats for us, in one of the rooms in the city of Athens museum, which had served as the temporary home of King Otto and Queen Amalia in 1834.

I wish I had stayed longer in Greece as I would have enjoyed another half-day archaeological tour with Discover Greek Culture to the Acropolis and the Acropolis museum. After the tour, they have a Greek wine and produce tasting session in Plaka, followed by a Greek coffee and Loukoumia, at a traditional Athenian mansion.

I shall definitely be back to learn more about Greek culture and to get a “Taste of Greece,” as I did not get an opportunity to have a guided history and archaeology tour of the Acropolis from an expert.

By the way, if you want a custom tour, Discover Greek Culture specializes in those as well as many others. I also heard that they won a Silver Award in the 2015 Greek Tourism Awards for their innovative tourism products.

If you’re interested in going to Greece and want something a little different than the tours that herd you around like cattle, why not check out a unique tour.

Have you visited Greece? If so, what was your favorite tour?

Discoverability: The Key to Successful Indie Publishing

April 14, 2015 by Sonia Marsh Leave a Comment

“Discoverability” seems to be the central theme at the 2015 Publishers University conference; something all indie publishers need to put at the top of their book publishing, marketing and promotion list. In 2014, the theme was the importance of indie authors becoming entrepreneurs, hence the term: “Authorpreneur.”

“Discoverability” is what the majority of self-published authors, or independent publishers, are looking for, and with 43 million book buyers in the U.S., how do you get discovered?

According to Peter Hildick-Smith, President of Codex Group, who presented, “How Books Sell,” there are three essential pillars to success:

Discoverability: Do I know the book exists?
Conversion: Is the book message interesting? Do I want to buy it?
Availability: Is the book available for purchase in book stores?

You need to do all 3 well, in order to sell books. Obviously if no one discovers your book, there are no sales.

How many true book buyers are there in the U.S.?

235 million adults
43 million adult book buyers
83 million infrequent book buyers, (those who hear about a popular book, and then buy it.)
13 million frequent book buyers (most of them are well-educated and make 50% more income than the average.)
Digital books are now skewed towards older people, because they can make the print larger, etc.

But discoverability alone does not guarantee book sales, it simply means an awareness that the book exists. Sadly, there was no difference in online discovery selling, between 2010 and 2014. The percentage remained low at 6%..

The real problem lies in the conversion aspect of book sales.

How do you move a discoverer to act to buy the book?

According to statistics on books purchased in the U.S. in 2014

29% of sales were because of a favorite author/series
24% Book topic/message
13% Personal recommendations

Author Brands dominate the list in both fiction and non-fiction book sales.

In order to be considered an author brand, you need to have 500,000 fans or more.
Your book/topic message is critical in determining book purchasing conversions, and increases towards narrative non-fiction and non-fiction.
Book covers make a huge difference in book sales. They have to be able to tap into the reader’s imagination.
A free e-book sticker with purchase of print book, made no difference in book sales.

Conclusion