Friday, May 28, 2010

Five days to go

Hi friends,

I'm leaving for Cameroon with the Peace Corps on Wednesday and thought this blog might be a convenient way for you all to follow what I am up to for the next couple of years. I'm kind of ambivalent about the idea of having a blog, but it does seem like the easiest way to tell stories, share pictures, let everyone know I'm still alive, etc., so here goes.

I started applying to the Peace Corps in September 2008, at the beginning of my senior year at the University of Michigan. I had always thought it sounded like something I would like to do someday, but did not seriously consider applying until two things happened that fall: 1) I realized that at the end of the year I would no longer be a student and would need some kind of grown up job; and 2) a buddy of mine left for Turkmenistan with the Peace Corps and it became for me something that people actually did, rather than simply thought about.

So, I began my application. But then my life became filled with senior year of college -- friends and the co-op and my thesis, the existential quest in the modern novel and oh god so much Salish-Pend d'Oreille. And then I looked up and it was March, I was a few weeks from graduation and still had no kind of life plan past wrangling horses for the summer. And so I finally finished my application.

I then spent one of the greatest summers of my life at Camp Henry as a wrangler, driving into Fremont during rest period to get fingerprinted, staying up late in the office to finish the set of additional materials Peace Corps had sent me, and trying to set up an interview that didn't interfere with Pirate Day, the Pants Relay, or Pony Express. I did my interview over the phone from my room in Idema house dressed in a llama costume (because, you know, it was the olympics) and after a couple false starts got nominated to teach English in sub-Saharan Africa in early June 2010. I was thrilled.

In September I returned home to Wisconsin in order to harass a team of doctors, nurses, and dentists into signing forms that stated that I did not have tuberculosis, false teeth, eyeglasses, or any genetic disorder known to man. Somehow I passed medical clearance on my first attempt and was able to move on to the exciting process of waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

And then it was February, I had just left Los Angeles and was at the zoo in New Orleans checking out some sweet albino alligators when Peace Corps called me up and asked if I would go to Central Asia in March. Like two weeks from then. I thought about it for a few minutes, then decided that this was simply too big of a life decision to make at the zoo, and said I probably couldn't leave until at least April. They sounded disappointed and I felt bad, but a couple weeks later I received an invitation to serve in Cameroon starting June 2nd, and I felt like everything had finally fallen into place.

So that is the "how" of my joining the Peace Corps. As for the "why" -- I don't think I was really sure of this at the beginning, except that I wanted to live abroad, volunteer, have something lined up to do after college, etc. However, as I learned more about the Peace Corps, I realized its mission made a lot of sense to me: answer countries' requests for trained workers in particular fields. In the process, volunteers learn about these countries, teach people there about life in America, and come home to teach people in America about life in these other countries. As a native speaker of English and student of linguistics and anthropology who loves to learn and share knowledge with others, teaching English (not to mention learning and sharing information between cultures) is something I am outrageously excited for, and probably relatively qualified to do (with help from Peace Corps training). Cameroon wants English teachers. So, here I go.

It sounds like internet access in Cameroon is fairly common, although often unreliable and certainly not ubiquitous. Anyways, I will write when I can and let you know where I am and what I am doing. Thank you all in advance for your love and support over the next two years!