My shoe shopping puts my Sisters shoe shopping to shame.

Mr. FedEx brought me my box with my sweet new Merrell Shoes.  They are the “Moab Gore-Tex XCR in Dark Chocolate.” Below is a video of them.

One more Peace Corps Paper to fill out...

I received an “Invitee Questionnaire,” yesterday.  This questionnaire is basically the final paper to help determine where exactly I will be placed within The Gambia.  It determines if I will be living near a city or larger town or if I will be living in a rural village.

The first question they ask besides your name is “What kind of setting would you prefer to work and live in?”  I am given a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being a “capital urban area,” and 5 being “village/rural,” I of course put 5 because I would like to be in a more rural area.  A couple of the other questions I was asked are:

“Some activities related to work may be a distance from your house.  How do you feel about riding your bike between your village and into a larger town?” 

“Would you prefer to be posted to a site that has a volunteer nearby (within 5 kilometres) or would you be happy to be more isolated?”

My two cents

I got a check today from Comcast Cable, apparently I overpaid on my last bill

Packing day #1

Day one of packing and a lot of progress was made with the help of my project manager.  As you can see in the picture she is always working hard. 

I have a huge list of things still to buy.  If anyone has any suggestions as to item you think I should take feel free to share. 

“are you nervous?”

The number one question I get asked when I tell someone I am going to Africa to serve with the Peace Corps is, “are you nervous?”  My response has always been not really.  I haven’t gotten nervous because it really hasn’t hit me yet that I am leaving for 27 months.  I haven’t thought about being dropped into an environment and culture that I have never experienced before.

In the last couple days I have received a couple e-mails from the PC.  These e-mails have information that detail my itinerary for travel and outline what my first few months of “pre-service training” will be like.  As I read these e-mails and the attached information I have starting to realize that this is all becoming very real, very quickly.  I still haven’t become nervous, but I have become more curious. 

Latest e-mail from the Peace Corps

I received an e-mail today with my staging information.  This information includes my luggage requirements, when and where my orientation will be in Chicago (Jan 4^th).  I also received my international flight itinerary.  Just over 16hrs in the air with a total time of about 20hrs from Chicago to Banjul via Brussels.

My peace corps timeline

Below is the timeline of the application process for me from when I first submitted my Peace Corps application to present day.  I started think about the Peace Corps around November of 2009 and really started to pursue and look into it further in January of 2010.

3-31-10 Submit application

4-23-10 First interview

4-30-10 Medical packet received

5-15-10 Dr. apt

5-16-10 Dentist apt.

5-18-10 Dr.apt

5-25-10 Sent off medical information

10-18-10 Phone interview

10-25-10 Accept invitation to serve in The Gambia

11-1-10 Receive packet for paperwork and information about The Gambia