Community Entry Conference!

This coming Tuesday, I leave for a Community Entry Conference where I will meet a counterpart from my community. For a little over one day, there will be information covered ranging from community expectations of the volunteer, volunteer expectations of the community, planning the first three months of service, and planning for the week long adventure. This will be my first opportunity to meet someone from my community!!! Then, on Thursday morning, I will leave for my community with my counterpart, and I will spend about four days in the community learning about it and getting a feel for my next two years. In addition, I have the opportunity to take luggage/supplies (such as a water filter) and leave it there in the community until I return at the end of the month, which will help immensely since I packed way too much and have already acquired an amazing more amount of stuff like books.

What are my expectations from my community? That is a good question. At this point, I just hope for patience as I advance my language proficiency, but this question is also something I need to seriously consider this coming weekend and translate into Spanish. Otherwise, for the one week, I hope to meet as many of the different organizations as possible. Also, I will investigate where I will live for the next three months, whether with one host family or three, and where I will live afterwards. Finally, I will also be able to determine whether there is anything else I need to buy, for example more warm clothes since it is at a significantly higher elevation, but really, I am just hoping to have some questions answered. The closer I get to the end of training, the clearer my next two years begin to look. Soon enough, I will be in my community and can begin the integration and trust building process necessary for my next two years of service!

In addition, tomorrow the CED trainees of Group 66 will present a community analysis done together in the training community that we have been living in since our arrival in Panama. It will entail a seasonal calendar, gender roles analysis, priority needs assessment, and SWOT analysis. It is truly amazing how the Peace Corps can recruit such talented people, and it is even more amazing how these same people are willing to give two years of their life to simply helping other people, especially since the process feels like jumping off a bridge without knowing whether you have a bungee cord attached!

It has been an insanely busy past 7? weeks, and it has also flown by. In the process, I have already experienced so much. I can´t wait for this upcoming week! So many questions will finally be answered!!!!! ( and a few more!!!!!!)

It's in the Mail!!!!

So...I have had contact with the Peace Corps over the past few days, and it has been extremely exciting. On Tuesday, I received a phone call from my Placement Officer. She asked me a series of questions, including how I would handle being a minority in the room, what I would do if I showed up for a event and was not feeling welcome, and why I had had interest to go to Central and South America in the beginning. She also asked whether I had followed my plans of taking Spanish this past semester. I explained to her that I hadn't since I was nominated for Africa. However, I asked whether it appeared as if my region would be changing, and she stated that there were no indication that it would. We ended the conversation with her placing me in the Qualified for Service for the Placement Process, whatever that means. She stated that she would be looking at programs leaving in August and September. Again, my excitement rose.
Then, the very next day (Wednesday this week), I receive an email stating that there was an invitation being put in the mail for me to leave August 17, 2010, and I would be departing for Central America to do Community Economic Development........
Wait.....Central America..........Is that a typo? If it said sub-Sahara America or Central Africa, then I would think so. But it said Central America! Hooray!!!!!
Community Economic Development? What does that entail? With answers only comes more questions!
I also called my Placement Officer and tried to get the exact country, but I was unsuccessful. I have to wait for the packet. Excitement still overruns me! I also had the opportunity to speak with my recruiter, who I cannot thank enough, and update him on my status. Even he sounded excited for me!
Finally, I went last night and got a headphone to start Rosetta Stone. Tonight, I begin learning Spanish, and I wait for my invitation in the mail. Hopefully, it will come Saturday, but I give it Monday at the latest. I can't wait!!!