Peace out Michigan. I'm heading to Africa.

Hello friends. Or should I say Padi Kusheh-O as they say in Krio, the language I will be learning shortly during my 2-year adventure with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone.  Yes that is the same Sierra Leone the movie Blood Diamond takes place in. And no, I will not die. Stop worrying.  Because in approximately one month I will begin my journey and no amount of worrying can stop me now.  So this blog is for those of you that care and would like periodic updates about my life. I promise to make them interesting and hopefully keep them humorous and positive for all you lovely people. 

Anyways this first blog is just meant to inform you all of where I will be going and what I will be doing (at least my impression of what I will be doing based on the somewhat limited information they provide me with).  So as already mentioned I am going to Sierra Leone. It is on the west coast of Africa, pretty near to the equator so I get to look forward to hot, humid weather for the next two years and being the sweaty, gross American. Fabulous. But I do get to look forward to amazing beaches to cool off at every once in awhile..  

However I will be kept pretty busy so my time for relaxing on the beach will be pretty limited if not none existent.  But thats okay because I am very excited to get to know the people and start teaching!  

So essentially Peace Corps works like this. First, we go to staging for a day in Chicago.  We get there at noon on the 31st of May and have an intense orientation that covers most of the basics of serving and challenges we will face.  I will also finally get to meet everyone in person that is going to Sierra Leone with me.  There are 50 of us going over so dont worry I will have plenty of people to make friends with :)  The next day we go to the clinic to get all of our shots and fly out at 5pm, June 1st.  The next phase of this adventure includes 10 weeks of training in Sierra Leone. At this point I will learn the language and learn how to teach.  Two things that are just kinda crucial to my success there.  So this period will involve intense studying and learning on my part so that I can communicate with the people there and learn how to do what will be my job.  Finally, after 10 weeks we go to our placement community. This will be the area I will be living in for the next two years.  I will be placed by myself and may or may not be placed near other volunteers. I know, scary right? haha Anyways, I will be there for 2 years making friends, building connections, and teaching secondary math education.  

So at this point you may be asking why I chose to do Peace Corps.  And that is a very good question.  Well I knew that after graduation (oh man that is tomorrow. this is really happening) I didnt want to go straight to law school and I figured if I am taking time off I might as well do something useful with my life. So I decided that some type of service work was what I wanted to do. On my list were things like Americorps, the Mennonite Mission Network, and Peace Corps.  Americorps was quickly pushed aside since I have always wanted to live abroad for awhile and now really just seemed like the perfect time.  So then it was down to either MMN or Peace Corps and MMN makes you pay while Peace Corps covers the cost of everything and pays you a readjustment allowance upon your return. So Peace Corps quickly became my first choice and only choice (which became incredibly nerve-racking, especially when the end of March came around and I still had no idea what I was doing with life).  But it all worked out for the best as I found out on my birthday that I was in :) What a great gift or an incredibly cruel gift. Does that really make up for all the stress and anxiety not knowing caused me?? Cant be too sure. Anyways, thats how it happened and now a month later I am done with school and looking forward to go in a month!

Hmm well I cant think of anything else that needs to be said at this point soo I guess I will just stop blogging. Oh man. Be excited. Not only did you just learn all about my life for the next two years but you just read the first blog post I have ever written in my life. Woah. So was it good? Should I just become a professional blogger? Comments/Suggestions/Things you want to know?? Just let me know and I will blog about it next time :)