Oh the holidays...

So I have been getting crap from my mother about having not posted a blog in so long so here we go. What have i been up too?? Well I have been at war with ants. The little sons of bitches are invading my house. It doesn´t matter how well I clean up or how much poison i spray in their little holes; if there is no speck of food to be found they attack the sponge that i wash the dishes with or the spoon i used to stir the broth with, that has been thoughroughly cleaned, but i guess still has the residue of leftovers. They got into all of my dried food a while back and I had to throw out my milk and flour. What else...we had a massive flour shortage last month...you couldn´t find flour in any market for three weeks, unless you were willing to participate in what seemed like a drug deal. You had to ask the assistant at one of the markets for flour. He would repeat that there was no flour to be found...but if you gave him the wink he would tell you to ask the cashier. The cashier would also tell you, no we doñ´t have any, but if you gave him the wink, he would look at the assistant you had already spoken too, who would give the cashier the head nod and then finally the cashier would quietly ring you up some flour. But that wasn´t the end of it, once you had paid for everything and had your bags in hand, you had to give them to the assistant who would take them in a back room and secretly put in your kilo of flour. It was crazy!!! Humm...more about what I have been doing. Does anyone know the record for how many of solitaire you can play without winning?? I am at 25 and i must have played at least 10 games before i started counting. I of course, have been reading a lot when i am not losing at solitaire. I am reading MobY Dick right now. It is fantasic, i recommend you all go out and pick up a copy! I don´t know why they have high school kids read it, i definately was not ready for it then and it is way to long to be a required reading, but when it is read for fun and in your own time, it is genius! Sticking with the classics, i also just finished Madame Bovary and hated it!! If classics aren´t your thing and you liked the movie MOmento...go get the book Dermophoria by Craig Clevenger. It is the most entertaining novel i have read. Other news. Thanksgiving was excellent. The volunteers of Fogo got together and made dinner. We had a blast and i have pictures to prove it! Our thanksgiving dinner coincided with a huge Saint Day festival in the town where we were so there was basically three days of non-stop partying. You know those Catholics and their saints (well and their drinking too!). I think we will get together for Christmas in Cha (the volcano) and maybe do new years here.
Ok, ok, i know none of that has anything to do with actual work; and since i get the question "do you actually do anything over there" I guess i can tell you a little about that too. I have started english classes 4 times a week. They are with the high school kids and it is more like english tutoring because i am definately not cut out to stand at the chalkboard and teach! I also am helping out with an NGO based out of the states that deals with domestic violence in Fogo. They have me translating documents from Portuguese to English which is quite amusing since I haven´t learned Portuguese!! All of us first year volunteers are meeting on the main island for some more training next week, so most of my stuff will be put on hold until after the new year. I also hope to get a youth group going once i get back. All things in the works....see i do do things!!

Ok, you all satisfied now!! Oh by the way...I am getting a puppy!!! One of the volunteers from Fogo just took a vacation on Mayo (another island) and somehow asked for a puppy and was given two, so she is bringing both of them back and they should get here saturday!! Oh god, what am i getting myself into!! You think I can train her to eat ants??? Anyways, if anyone has a good name for a girl puppy let me know!! I tend to like names that deal with alcholic beverages!!

Anatomy 201

I have spent all of this past week trying to remember what I learned in Anatomy 201 in college. Why you ask…because every muscle in my body hurts; even the teeny tiny ones in my toes!!! Last weekend was jam-packed full of hiking, which means that when Monday came, I couldn’t move my legs. Friday, I caught a ride up to Cha das Calderas (the town on the volcano) and stayed with the two volunteers up there, Mel and Sam. Saturday, the three of us got up early and hiked up the volcano. It took us 3 ½ hours to get to the top (mainly because of me…I am a slow mover!). Sam, who I like to call Turbo Man, and who Mel has decided is pure ADD rolled up into a functioning human form, can hike to the top in 2 hours (it’s a change in elevation of more than 1,500 Meters). Once at the top though, it is outstanding. It literally feels like you are on top of the world because you are above the clouds looking down on the little town of Cha and the big blue Atlantic Ocean (don’t worry; I know I am a cornball!!!). However, what really makes the trip up worth the pain is the trip down. You don’t go down the same way you go up, something I did not know when we started because Sam likes it to be a surprise. While the hike up is pretty traditional in the way of hiking, ie. some switchbacking and rock climbing, etc., the way down is straight down. You basically run down the side of the volcano in knee deep volcanic rock. As the other Lauren told me before I came here, “it’s like running on black cheerios.” It is definitely pretty close, but I might even say more like powder skiing in black cheerios! It took us only an 1 ½ hours to get down as opposed to the 3 ½ to get up and it really felt like we were the only people on earth who had ever been on this volcano (I know, cornball again!). So, it was a much faster trip down and way more fun!!

I stayed Saturday night too in Cha, and then Sunday, Mel and I got in hiking mode one more time to make the 4 hour trip down to Mosteiros to see Sean and Dave, the volunteers there. After the hard cardiovascular hike up the volcano, I naively thought this trip down to the boys would be a cake walk…boy was I wrong. It is 4 hours of straight down; no breaks, no ups, nothing but down. There were points along the trail where Mel and I were literally running because our legs were no longer strong enough to stop our forward momentum. I was actually hoping that there would be a point where we would have to go uphill a little, but no such luck. By the time we got to the bottom, our legs were jell-o, our feet were torn up and on fire, and we had both taken one pretty nasty fall along the way in the wet mud. I think we must have looked pretty pathetic by the time we reached the boys, but it was nothing a cold beer couldn’t fix…which we drank Cape Verdean style, which is to say that we popped it open right after leaving the store and were finished by the time we reached the house.

The boys already had some activities planned for the evening, so we tagged along to the big soccer game that was happening in town. It was the finals of the girls’ league and it was amazing to see all of the people that were there cheering and really getting into the game. After the game, we went back to the house where Dave, the cook of the house (they have it worked out so that Dave cooks and Sean does the dishes…he might starve if not for Dave…we definitely have to get him cooking!!), made a yum dinner and we sat out on their fantastic roof and drank some beers and talked. I think they definitely have the best volunteer house on Fogo, their rooftop space is bigger than the inside of their house! Mel and I left on the early Hiace Monday morning, and were back in Bila before 8 am. I spent all day Monday trying not to move because my legs were not wanting to work. All is better now, but I think it will be awhile before I do that hike again!!

Sam eating some yummy cookies

Not the best pic, but this is Mel

Mel and me

I made it to the top!!

Going down anyone??

Do you even know what a mop is or how to use it??

I thought I would clarify for all my skeptics out there (Sara Martin…and probably anyone who has ever lived with me/known me), YES I have become quite well acquainted with my mop!! I may not have used it much before, or really maybe never before(!) but I am a good little cleaner now. I clean my house twice a week, can you believe that 2 times in one week! I know I know, I am making people fall off their chairs right now, what with liking onions and actually cleaning on a regular basis. Oh, and I would like to say that I have passed the month mark living here in Fogo, and you can still see the floor of my room. My clothes actually go in a dirty clothes bin, or yes, even get hung up. It is amazing what the threat of cockroaches, ants and dust will do to a person!

As for how my actual work is going here is a little update…I am still going every afternoon to a health “formação (=seminar/talk/discussion)” in different “fora(=rural)” zones of Fogo (sorry there are just some things that don’t translate right coming back into English, so you all get a little Kriolu/Portuguese lesson). I do absolutely nothing but sit there but it is great for me to be getting out there, seeing the different youth of the different zones that I might be working with, and for them to get comfortable seeing me! I am going to start next week at the youth center here in Bila doing something with English, maybe tutoring, maybe lessons, I don’t really know because I think something got lost in translation…my language is still horrific! But I have started really studying, another big shock, which is something up until now I haven’t done…so hopefully I will get over this hump. The peaks and valleys of learning a language are real mental challenges.

And for an update on the fun part of my Peace Corps experience (well it’s all fun but this is just silly), I was a judge at the Miss Fogo competition last Saturday night!! Hahaha, I really don’t know how this happened but it was definitely entertaining…but it was way past my bedtime because it started at midnight and ended at 3:30 am…talk about a culture difference! And then yesterday, I was asked if I wanted to “fazi ginàstica”, which literally translates into “make gymnastics” and my mind immediately goes to “oh my god, they want me to go to a class with a balance beam, vault and floor routine. The woman I have been going to the formação with, who speaks great English, said that no, it was an aerobics class, so then my mind goes to Jane Fonda in the 80’s or sweatin’ to the oldies with Richard Simons, and I think sure..let’s have a little fun. Well I get there and it turns out to be a high impact kick-boxing/Tae Bo class!! It was great! It is held outside on the patio of the primary school where you can see the sunset over the ocean…not to shabby if you ask me.

Rain drops keep falling on my head...

Well we have been in the “rainy season” for over a month and yesterday is the first day there has been rain here in São Felipe (now to be referred to as Bila because it’s easier for me to type and that is how all the locals refer to it). The rain has been hard and constant since before lunch yesterday which meant that every hour since the rain started, you can find me mop in hand, forcing water down drains so that my house doesn’t flood!! Most houses here are built with what is known as a “kintal”, which is an open space inside your house (it is where I do my laundry!), but also means that it basically rains inside your house. This first rain has also allowed me to see the flaws in my large home…there is a hole somewhere in the base of the wall that connects my bedroom to the kintal. So guess what?? When it rains hard and water backs up in my kintal, it seeps through the hole into my bedroom!! Thankfully, this was a wall I didn’t have anything up against so none of my stuff got water logged or damaged. The rain, however annoying for my drainage problems, has been great. Starting with the fact that because of the rain, for the first time it wasn’t excruciatingly hot today!! Also, it means that the crops get some much needed nourishment because right now, in most places the corn is little more than a sprout coming out of the ground, when it should be well past my knees. The rain makes me happy but it also makes me miss Arizona (surprise) and the awesome monsoons. I love rain, but there is nothing like some good thunder and lightning!

p.s. day after rain...what do you get when you combine two days of constant rain with the extreme heat that comes the day after the rain...IT´S HUMID AS HELL HERE!!!

The Sounds of Mourning

I wake up Sunday to the sound of women wailing; a sound, in this culture, which only means one thing. The old man who lives across from me, who I have seen every morning since I arrived here being pushed around his house in his wheelchair, has died. The wailing is constant throughout the day, visitors coming and going, joining in this ritual of mourning. For seven days as more family and friends arrive to pay respects and keep constant vigil, the wailing will continue, each arrival kicking up a new round of grief.
This is not the first time I have heard wailing since coming to Cape Verde. With every death or anniversary of death comes the wailing of widows, daughters, family and friends. At first I thought it was heart breaking; distressing to hear these public cries of loss, but as the wailing continues, it seems to me more of an obligation than a true emotion. It is a tradition, a way that people let the community know that one of their own has gone, but the forced structure of the wailing is something I cannot comprehend. In the US, mourning and loss is such a personal thing; sadness and tears are normal, but not in this public, group manner that has time constraints. After the seventh day, the wailing will stop until the first anniversary of death, and every year after, as family comes home in recognition of the death, the wailing will commence again.

My life in Fogo

Sorry for the long delay in blog entries folks, but every time I sit down to write something, I feel like I have nothing to say; which is definitely not true because so many things have changed since the last entry. So I will try to hammer out everything new because, frankly, dinner is in the oven and will take a while so there is nothing better to do. First of all, you have seen the pictures of Fogo, my beautiful volcanic island and some randoms of some of the other volunteers and me, so I hope I have satisfied one of your hungers…

…Now for the other. I have been in São Felipe now for almost 3 weeks and am still trying to settle in and feel “at home” here. Although I was nervous about living by myself, I shouldn’t have been because I think I have only spent 4 nights by myself in those three weeks. My house, since it is in the major town, tends to be the transit house. The volunteers that live in the rural areas have to come in to buy produce and use the internet, so they end up staying the night because transport around the island is shifty. I think that once the school year gets under way things will settle down. Luckily I enjoy the company and the two volunteers that live in the volcano are real foodies so whenever they are here they make me a superb meal as their fee for staying. Speaking of cooking, I have learned that cooking from scratch takes quite awhile, and when dinner preparation takes more than an hour and it is only me, I tend to have a lot of food left over. I am trying to adapt recipes for one, but the guessing of measurements can sometimes lead to disaster. But I have found I love to cook and experiment with all of the recipes I have, and even the hour of preparation passes the time and is fun because I turn on my music and dance around while I chop. The main produce that goes into everything that I make (partially because it is all I can get here) is garlic, green pepper, tomato and onion…yes I said onion. I willingly put onion in everything now. I even put raw onion in my tuna salad sandwiches. For those of you who don’t know, my disgust for onion in the states was one of the great hatreds of this world, but I guess my palate is changing. I also have willingly bought and cooked fish and I make myself a cup of tea before I go to bed so I guess already Peace Corps has changed me for the better. Let’s see, other food…I eat a lot of beans because there is not a whole lot of other protein that I like to fumble with. I do get chicken and of course fish and I make my own tortillas and pizza dough so I have already had a Mexican night and an Italian night!! I do make everything spicy because all I brought with me is crushed red pepper and the wonderful dried peppers of Jim Nelson (which before too long I will be needing a refill of!). Other types of spices are hard to find here so the Italian spices are in the mail (hopefully soon) and if anyone has anything that I have to have feel free to send it!

I have not been doing much in the way of “work” because as a community development volunteer, part of my initial job description is to integrate into the community and assess its needs. So, there is no daily 9-5 work schedule set up for me as of yet. I have been in contact with the two main institutions that I will be working with; the Centro de Juventude (youth center) and the OMCV, which is the national woman’s organization in Cape Verde. One of the projects the OMCV is doing right now is working with the youth of Fogo, holding information sessions on HIV/AIDS and related health topics. I have already attended a three day seminar and am excited to see how I can help with this project even more. So, since I don’t go into work all day, what do I do?? Well, Sunday and Monday, were basically spent washing my clothes. Man that takes a long time!!! And along with the duration of the activity, it is a massive arm work out as well! The ringing out of the clothes is the hardest part, especially the sheets and towels. I also spend a lot of time just walking around the town so that people get used to seeing me. But the walking here is crazy because my town 1) is hot as hell, and coming from Arizona I am qualified to say that…I literally think I sweat out about a gallon of water a day. I wish that I had brought more airy dresses, shorts and comfortable shirts because that is literally all that I wear. And my house isn’t much better for the heat, there is no ventilation so I sweat my ass off inside too, especially in the kitchen!! Ok, so not only is it hot here, but 2)the town of São Felipe is all hill. Every time I leave my house for something I have to go DOWN to the center of town, and getting back UP is unlike any exercise I have ever done. I know this might sound like an exaggeration, but as soon as I have my first visitor from the states you will see that it’s not. It’s hard, and it’s hot so maybe soon I will actually be in good shape!

Ok, dinner is done so that is all for now…I promise to try and be better with the entries!
Oh and if you wanted to know, dinner is a casserole with chicken, potatoes, peas and cream of mushroom soup (homemade of course)!

It´s been a while...sorry

More photos for everyone!!
Sorry they are really out of order.

This is what Fogo looks like!!

This is my house!! I live on the bottom floor and there is a family that lives above me. The grandma makes really good doughnuts!!

My living room...

More of the beaches of fogo.

The new group going to Fogo...Sean, Me, Andrea and Dave

Sarah and I on our last day together...how sad.

The lava canals in Fogo!! This island is so diverse and has some really cool things to look at.

More lava canals.

The black sand beaches.

All of the new volunteers after Swear-in.

Ok, Ok, I am finally going to get up a little something since it has been a while!! I promise to write more but write now I am just going to put up a hodge podge of pictures for everyone to see!

Also so everyone knows, I have a new address where I would love to get letters or care packages!! And especially if any of you have time, I need recipes, so send me your favorite dish because I am cooking a lot and feel like I am going to need some variety!!

Lauren Dotson

C.P. 87

Sao Felipe, Fogo

Rebublica de Cabo Verde

Table for one??

We got our site placements yesterday!!! I am going to the island of Fogo which I am so excited about...however, I will be in one of the bigger towns there and I will be living by myself. I had wanted a more rural site but of course I am going to take this and run with it! There are 4 other volunteers from my group going to the island as well, 2 boys and 2 other girls. The 2 boys will be on the other side of the island from me and the two girls should be just around the island a little, but transportation is a bit sparadic so we´ll see how often I get to see everyone!!! I´m a little nervous about the being on my own thing and I´ll have to learn how to cook for just one!! Ok, that´s all I have for now...I´ll let you know my mental state before I leave for site in two weeks!!

Pictures...finally

This is Suili...she lives in my house and this was on her birthday!! She turned 4.

This is my youth developement group...Samira is our language facilitator (her son Dinari is on her back), Sarah is the blonde with the crazy hair, Whitney in the middle, and Leah but she is one of the girls who have already gone home, so it´s really just the 4 of us!
This is mama Julia!! We are sitting infront of my homestay house which is where i spend a lot of my time.
A group of us at the concentration camp that was here in Cape Verde...Emily, Daron, Dannielle, Marieka, Scott and Me!
There was a big festival in one of the homestay villages and this is some of us eating at one of the trainees house...Me, Sean, Brian and Sarah (making a really pretty face!)
This is Ribeira Di Barka!! I walk out my door every evening and see this beautiful sunset!!

Me in front of my house with all the little ones!!

When the lights go down in the city

Ok so I had to throw a little Journey in...
Since last sunday we have been without electricity in my village. Normally we have lights from about mid day to mid night but something happened and the whole week has been dark. Personally, I love it and am now even more convinced that I hope I get a sight with limited or no electricity. Instead of watching Brazilian novelas after dinner, everyone goes and sits in the street and talks under a gorgeously stary sky. And it is also a great excuse to get to go to bed at 9 and not look like a complete loser!!! The lights going out was especially neat this week because Sarah (see below to see who she is) lives with a family who´s son is a super famous musician here in cape verde and he is here visiting...so we sat in the dark under the stars and he played the guitar and sang...it was a little surreal and you all have to go check out the singer Tcheka.

Last weekend, this girl sarah, who is in my youth developement group and so lives in my same village, arranged for a BBQ at her house for the peace corps peeps. We all went up hiking to this little waterfall first and on the way back to town, the first hard rain of the season started!! We hiked for an hour and a half in the heavy rain and it was so amazing to see all the local villages we passed through because eveyone was so excited and yelling and celebrating the start of the rainy seaon. In this drought plagued country, rain means food and that is definately a reason to be happy. ~
Once we got back from the hike, sarah had make us lunch (chicken not fish!) and we all ate and then a group of about 8 spent the night and for a split second we could all imagine that we were back in america partying with our own group of friends...it was great to have that one little bit of´ámerican´time and it was really nice to get to relax and have a beer with the group because we don´t all get to hang out a lot with the schedule we have.

In other news, we find out our permenant sites NEXT friday so hopefully the next time i post something it will be where i am living for the next two years!!

So the last few weeks have been super busy. We have lost two members of our group which makes it hit home that, although sometimes it feels like it, we are not on vaction. I have made it to the half-way point of training and still can´t believe that I am really here. We have a completely different experience than any other post...cape verde is not like any other country in the world and sometimes it may seem like we volunteers have it easy here because we have so many more amenities than those say on the continent, but the mind games that Cape Verde plays on you can be tough. Our post here has one of the highest eary termination rates and I think I know why. On the continent it´s supposed to be hard...you´re in the Peace Corps in a village in the middle of nowhere and you know why it´s hard. Here, with more cities and internet cafe´s and discotecs, you think `why am i having such a hard time, I have light and an indoor bathroom´. But enough about random thoughts, here is what I´ve been up too.
Last weekend we went to a concentration camp here in Cape Verde. We looked around a bit and then went to the beach...then sunday I washed all my clothes, which once I leave my homestay i will never be able to wear my jeans again because I am not stong enough to ring them out!! Sunday night we went to the discotec in our village (yes we have a disco) and I was taught how to dance!! Man...like i said before Cape Verdeans have so much invested in their music and dance that it is something i am privliged to learn...but the upbeat dance called Funana takes a lot of energy!!! We find out our permenant site placement on august 10 and i have asked for a more rural spot but of course I have absolutely no imput in the final decision. Also, we took a mid training language exam and I am already at the level required for me to swear in as a volunteer (but I could definately not go out into the world yet!) And I have learned some other thing about my self and here is what they are.
I don´t mind cockroaches as much as I despise ants.
I can take a bucket bath using only 4 cups of water and do a pretty damn good job!
I get a little motion sick swimming in the ocean.
I CAN eat fish and drink tea every night even though i hate them both!!
I love my host sister Su...she rocks and has biceps the size of potatoes cause she works her ass off all day doing house work.
I love hiace rides...they are like rollercoaster rides.

No, I don´t want more fish

Shoot, Cape Verdeans eat a lot of fish...especially my village on the water. Fish for dinner, fish re-fried for breakfast, and whatever is left for lunch!!! I don´t know if I can take 9 weeks of fish, but we´ll see!! I just now am getting over a cold. I think most of you have been privy to seeing one of my dramatic coughing fits that go along with my colds and I think that everyone here thinks I am dying! My mama keeps trying to get me to go to the hospital and there is no way to tell her that this will pass and that I am getting better. I had a breakthrough last night though when I actually wanted to eat the fish instead of wanting to throw-up from the smell!! Anyways, those are my only gripes right now!! I am aclimating quite well and for only being the second week in the village, my Kriolu (the local language) is actually quite good!! Thank god for my background in spanish. Those that don´t have a strong language background are stuggling a bit, but we keep trying to remember that it is only the second week and there are 7 more before we are on our own. Today was a great day for us youth developement volunteers...we got to go see a couple of the youth institutions in Assomada...the bigger city of my zone. We went to an SOS (an orphange of sorts that is an international NGO and they are all over the world so you might have heard of them) and right after we went to an orphange that is run by the government here. wow, what a difference money can make. But the strength and resiliance of kids never ceases to amaze me. The girls at the home danced Batuk for us...Batuk is this amazing dance created by the slaves that passed through here to show that they still had life in them. It is basically an ass shaking dance and that is all that moves, it´s in the blood of the people on this island because nowhere else in the world can this be done...i wish i could show it to you because words cannot explain the power behind this dance. Ummm what else??? I will be in the bigger city shadowing the one youth volunteer here from sunday until wednesday. everyone else gets to go off the island to shadow a volunteer in their sector, but Courtney is the only youth volunteer in cape verde, so all 4 of us stay in the city where we are training!! I told everyone they had to take pictures of the different islands because I don´t believe they exist!! Anyways, gotta go catch my iasi (pronounced like yass) back to Ribeira di barca. Miss you all!!

I´m here!

I have made it to Cape Verde!! We left Atlanta at 4:30 pm on wednesday and arrived in Dakar Senegal at 4:30 am Thursday morning. It was pretty surreal getting on that plane and thinking that when it lands I will be in Africa for two years. Don´t worry I waived goodbye to the US as we flew away! We had a six hour layover in Dakar, so the Peace Corps took us to a hotel for the day. Now let me just say that Dakar is a pretty dangerous airport anyways, but coming in at the wee hours of the morning with 29 americans and more crap than we could carry, definately caused a stir with the locals. No one good is out at that time of day, I don´t care what country you are in. So after a pretty tense transition to the buses we got to the hotel and basically hung out by the pool all afternoon until it was time to go back to the airport and get on the flight to Praia, Cape Verde. We are staying at this hostel type place and I can see the ocean from my window. We have been in constant training sessions since we got here (no rest for the weary, i finally got to bed at 11 last night after 36 hours of being awake) and there is no end in sight. We got about 3 hours of free time today and I am glad I get to tell you all how things have been going. oh, we also received all of our shots this morning and are going to a big dinner tonight. In case you were wondering, local time here is 3 hours ahead of eastern time and 6 ahead of the west coast. Well the computer is buzzing at me because i only have 5 min left so i have to wrap up but I am great and already loving it. Can´t wait to get to my host family on Sunday and start learning some Kriolu!!!

It’s real…

 

Today was our final day of staging in Atlanta. Tomorrow we pack up our extremely heavy luggage and fly away to Dakar, Senegal and then to Praia, Cape Verde. These past two days of training have been so interesting, getting to know everyone in my group (there's 29 of us) and learning more about the Peace Corps and Cape Verde. Now most of you who know me, know that I am non-emotional (or at least according to girl standards) but today was just so amazing. We were wrapping up our session for today and they popped in a video that the Peace Corps made for their 45^th anniversary and it showed John F. Kennedy making his speech about the implementation of a program that sent trained men and women abroad to help. To watch him speak gave me chills and to imagine what he would think if he could see what his little idea has become. When the video was playing I was looking around the room at these other 28 people who have decided to make this life changing decision with me and I just thought "whoa, this is real now". We are really getting on a plane together tomorrow and we are really living in Cape Verde for two years…it's real, no more talking about it, no more planning for it, it's real. Then to cap it all off, we stood in a circle and just said how we were feeling about everything. And the one that got me was when someone said how funny it was that we had all just met 24 hours ago, but we had already formed this bond and blended together so well. He said that for the next two years we were each others family and it was just awesome to see this group of people that had come from so many states and from different backgrounds but we were a solid group now…and for me that is powerful.

Ok, that's as sentimental as I get…no Amy there were no tears!!

So, now I am off to have a final dinner in the United States and then finish packing. The real trip begins tomorrow and those of you who were in Yosemite with me will understand…I am ready to suck the marrow out of this adventure!!!

What it looks like

Well since I told you I was packed, I thought I would show you what packed for two years abroad looks like. And I wanted to practice uploading pictures!!

I’m underweight!!

I am packed and ready to go and amazingly I am under the 80 lb limit!! Don't know how that happened but it did! Just thought I would let everyone know!

Wow, what a party!!!

Unfortunately, since I am running out of time to do everything, this post is not only serving as an update, but also as a thank you letter to all of you who were able to come to the party last sunday. It was amazing to see all of the people I love in one place together!!! It was so much fun, and boy those margaritas were delicious!!!

Anyways, I am back in Phoenix after my month long fairwell tour of California. I feel like I have been in a whirlwind the past few weeks, never being in one place for more than a week!! But I would not have traded it for the world. I started out my journey driving from Tucson to San Diego, flying up to Roseville for Michelle's wedding and hanging out with the Coupe family for almost a week. I flew back down to LA to stay for a couple days with my parents in the RV! It was my first "camp out" in the luxorious RV and I think I did pretty well. Then it was up the coast to visit the Scott's in Santa Clara and have lunch at Google with Julia (very impressive!). I then went to see my bestest friend Emily in San Mateo and that weekend we met up with my mom, Celeste and Heidi for a girls weekend in Santa Cruz. Let me just say that Emily and I had a lot to learn about drinking from those old farts!!! Finally, I ended up at the Ingols' in Roseville, helping Amy get ready to start her big girl job in San Francisco! I capped off the road trip with a big bang party at the Dodds' that turned in to more than I could have ever asked for!!! The drive back was long but mom, dad and I put in some portuguese tapes so I could start practicing one of my new languages!
My challenge now is trying to get packed before I leave on Sunday. I have A LOT of stuff and I don't think it is all going to fit and if it does it is going to be way over the weight limit so I need to get going!!! Hopefully I will be able to post again before I leave the country next wednesday, but if not, the next post will be from Cape Verde!!!

The wait is over!!

I have finally received my invitation that tells me my country and my departure date. Y'all ready???!!! I am going to Cape Verde. It is a group of nine inhabited islands (kind of like Hawaii) off the coast of north-west Africa!! So I am not on the mainland, which at first I was disappointed about, but everything I have read has made me really excited!! My job title is YOUTH MOBILIZER which basically means I can do anything once I get over there that is focused on youth. They talk about camps, sports, community developement, learning basic computer skills, tutoring, HIV/AIDS and STD awareness, etc. I couldn't be happier about working with the youth of the country.
Now it's really crunch time for me because my departure date is June 25th and the Peace Corps has so many forms and last minute things they have you do. When I called today to accept the invitation, my placement officer said 'ok congratulations, now you need to get your visa and passport applications that we JUST sent you mailed away today or tomorrow"!!! I have about 6 weeks left and that is usually how long everything takes so I ran around like a crazy woman today trying to get everything done (and i did!).
So, everyone go look up my beautiful islands!!

How it all started

As most of you know, I have started the process of becoming a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa. Back in January, I decided to stop applying to nursing schools and go full force in another direction...the Peace Corps. To some, this may have appeared to be an unplanned and rash decision, but on the contrary, this had been something I had been thinking about since before I graduated from college. When I brought it up then, I think everyone thought it was just an idea that would quickly pass, and for a couple years it looked as if it had. But much to my mother's shigrin, the thought was always in the back of my head, and when I brought it up again in January, I think she knew there was no going back. Before the month of January was over, I had submitted my application, interviewed with the recruiter in Tucson, and been nominated for the health program in Africa. I am now in the process of being medically and dentally cleared (a process that is much more thorough than you would think!) and am awaiting a definated departure date and country. As of right now I am supposed to be leaving sometime in July, but this can always change if something stalls the process. I am so excited and cannot wait for this chapter of my life to begin!!!