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!!