Reading Lists and dress clothes

Do I plan on taking dress clothes? Yup. To my dismay of course. Not because I don't like puttin' on the ritz, but because its more stuff to pack and something you have to worry about what you pack around it. So I plan on bringing two polo's, two long sleeve button up's, one actual dress pant and use some khaki cargos for another pair, nice socks, and nice shoes, two ties. Oddly enough, the more I learned about the PC, the more I realized this wasn't the hippies retreat everyone seems to have the connotation of. In fact, many places I read that the PC needs hair and beards to be neatly trimmed and clothing should be respectable in order to remain presentable in the community. Most of the communities we'll be living in take great pride in their appearances. They would scoff at the "devil may care" look many college students take when they go out in public, and ironically the worst dressed of those college kids are usually the types that are the ones attracted to the PC, myself included.



As for the reading lists, since I'll be an Agroforester/Enviro ED, I started compiling online articles and journals months before and saved them to my harddrive. I recommend the Overstory Agroforestry website, http://www.agroforestry.net/overstory/index.html for its periodicals, and its recommended reading lists http://www.agroforestry.net/aflibr.html. I also went to the USDA National Agroforestry Research Center website and requested some free material http://www.unl.edu/nac/order.htm. The History and Conquest of Peru was something I had always wanted to read and I definitly picked it up after I was assigned there. Ultimatley I enjoyed it, it does have a weighty portion AFTER the actual conquest, but if you stick with it you eventually discover where many of the modern cities get their names and even the ancient ones. You also learn how the fragile relationship between Peruvians and Europeans was created, and it sheds light on how their modern culture and religion is shadowed by events that happened in the 1500's!