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This is where my journey to Sierra Leone begins...........

I am about 6 weeks away from departing from my country of birth and the place that I have come to feel comfortable living in. The USA. It has given me a wonderful upbringing and excellent education (for the most part), and now I feel the need to give to those who were not born into such luxuries. I signed up for the Peace Corps back in August 2010, and after a very long application process, I was invited to serve in Sierra Leone to teach math at a secondary education level.

On or around May 31 I will be going to Chicago for a day or two of orientation, what the Peace Corps calls Staging, followed by a long flight to Brussels, and then finally onto Freetown, Sierra Leone. After 3 months of training in language, culture, and teaching in Makeni,Sierra Leone, I will then be sent to a village, by myself, where I will spend two years teaching at a local school and becoming part of the community.

This blog is going to be my story of those 27 months abroad as I learn to live a simpler life style without power, running water, or air conditioning. I will be surrounded by new smells, tastes, sights, extreme heat and humidity, dirt and dust, rain rain rain, poverty, green everywhere, and hopefully all kinds of new and wonderful birds. I will go through some intense adaptations to my body and mind, which will include homesickness, boredom, fits of diarrhea, and other weird illnesses. I will be a minority for the first time in my life and from the sounds of it will be treated almost like a celebrity. Not sure how to feel about that yet. From what Ive heard the food sounds delicious and the music is everywhere. I am super excited!

I hope to have some kind of internet access at least once a month so I can keep you all updated. I will include pictures, recipes, stories, feelings, and anything else that i come across. Please enjoy.





The Peace Corp Process for those interested:
I applied online in August 2010. It is a long and detailed application. After that you will get some phone calls and if lucky, eventually a face to face interview. The interview was about like any other interview id done and at the end if you were deemed worthy they will give you what is called a nomination. It will include the general region you would serve and the position, all of which could change. The nomination is not the official invite. After this you will start a very lengthy and tedious medical and dental procedure which involves checkups and getting any immunizations needed. It is doable. I had to begin INH treatment because of positive exposure to Tuberculosis. Little over halfway done taking stupid Antibiotics everyday along with vitamin B6. If you pass all the test, which you should, they will then process all your info and send you to the placement office. It took what seemed like forever but after a few more months I finally got my invitation around April 7th. I accepted :) If anyone is interested I will gladly talk to you about it.