One Week to go!!!!

Heeeeyyyy, Family and Friends!! As you can tell, this is my blog for all things African and Peace Corps and it will be where I will post my online musings on my Peace Corps experiences for the upcoming two years (that is, if I have electricity at my post). I am pretty new on this blogging experience and my writing skills are a little rusty, so bare with me. And for those of you who don't know me and just stumbled on my blog, here's a little background. I'm in my early twenties and in 2007, graduated with a degree in social work. As I had no concrete job aspirations or grad school applications in the mail, I decided to do something crazy, life altering and hopefully career furthering. I decided to apply for the Peace Corps. I figured since I had no job or family obligations (aka kids), right now was the best time of my life to do this. Or I could wait till I was sixty-five years old and my kids grown up to do this, but, honestly, I didn't want to wait that long. Soooo, I applied and waited eleven tortuous months and finally got accepted in November of 2008. I leave for East Africa, specifically the beautiful country of Rwanda, a week from today. I will be training for three months in one of the largest cities in Rwanda, learning the languages (kinyarwanda and french), health education, culture and safety training. Then, I will be assigned a small village and health outpost to work at. I will be working with the outpost or clinic in HIV prevention and outreach and integrating into the community.

So, there you have it. My life condensed to a single paragraph. Hopefully, I will be able to post more information as I go along but, honestly, it depends on electricity and internet access and if anybody steals my computer while I'm there.

As I haven't started Peace Corps yet, I will regail you with the boring details of my life thus far in the United States. I quit my job a week ago, theoretically to pack my suitcases and finish some loose ends here at home. In reality, I have entered into a new dimension of laziness. An example or two is needed. On Sunday, I spent a large portion of the day eating and watching reruns of CSI. After finishing my third CSI episode, I quit watching but only because there were no more reruns to watch. Then, I proceeded to stay up until 3 am organizing my music files on my computer. Last week, I finished a whole season of Charmed and started the second season. To make matters worse, I am so bored that I keep eating. And when I mean eating, I mean all the time. I guess I will lose weight in Africa (fingers crossed) but, right now, I don't fit in a third of my clothes. Which brings me to an important debate in my mind. Should I pack clothes that I like but don't fit me in the hope they will fit me when I am starving three months from now, or should I leave them here in the United States? I am not accustomed to making home cooked meals every day, going to the market or raising vegetables. Who knows what I will be eating when I am left to my own devices in a little mud hut in a remote African village. Better eat up now while fatty, indulgent American cuisine is a phone call or short drive away. In the coming week, I will be hitting up all the Mexican, Chinese, and fast food restaurants in town and, as a result, not be able to fit in the rest of the clothes I own.