Knowhere

Bonjour!

Bonjour from Cameroon! We arrived! We are in yaounde cameroon. We are in a nice hotel for the next five days for training, then we go to bafia. This place is incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Coming in on the plane it was so beautiful. Yaounde is surrounded by mountains and the sun was setting and here was just a cloud of fog sitting over the entire city. It looks like a normal city except when you get closer the roads Erie all muddy red and there’s so much green everywhere. On the side of te runway it just drops off into thick jungle. They brought us in for our first night and fed us, the food is very good, chicken rice potatoes and veggies. Driving to the hotel was kind of terrifying though, and I completely understand by they don’t let us drive while here.  There are no street lights or stop signs or really dven lanes in the road so people jus drive everywhere and anywhere they can fit. You will see a bus cut off a van with a moto buzzing in between and people everywhere. Peace corps is definitely taking great care of us though, and I will take plenty of pictures once it is light out. Tomorrow we have our first language test to see what class we are put in, I’m not worried though, I seem to know more French than at least half the people who came. Everyone seems really cool too, we are all getting along great. I miss you all and goodnight!

Where we’re going, we won’t need roads!

The time has arrived! We are officially on the road to Philly after a whirlwind couple of weeks. It has been a fantastic time seeing all of you, and now it’s time to start the real adventure. I had a fantastic time at my going away party and I wanted to thank everyone that came out, it meant a great deal to me to see everyone before I go and thanks for all the well wishes. We will spend the night in Philly tonight then staging starts in the morning, and I fly out Thursday morning. So that’s probably it for now, see you all on the other side!

The Big Update!

Finally the big update!

On monday i recieved an email from the placement office saying they would like to have one last phone interview with me. After a brief period of excitement i replied and we scheduled an interview for this morning at 10 30. 

After barely sleeping and watching the clock all morning, the phone rang at 10 39. we talked for a while about my motivations, and what i perceive to be the difficulties i will have to over come as a volunteer. After wrapping up the interview, the interviewer tells me that she would be sending out an invitation in the mail later today, and will be inviting me to serve in Francophone Africa in an IT program leaving May 30th! Now, they dont like to tell you the country on the phone because they prefer you get it all at once with your information packet in the mail, but due to a little investigation and process of elimination, the only likely country with my program that is departing on that date is Cameroon! So I’m almost positive that will be my country and I am positive I will be accepting! This is so exciting and after all this waiting it seems like its so soon! I know the next two months are going to fly by now, there will be so much to do. But I am moving to Africa!

CLEARANCE

Finally another update in the long waiting game of peace corps application!

I woke up this weekend to an email from peace corps, saying they have reviewed my medical packet, and the only thing standing between me and clearance was a tetanus booster because my previous one was over five years old. So after calling around for a bit I went after work today and got the shot and faxed them the paperwork. tada! Hopefully by tomorrow they will get it and make it legal. This long ordeal of medical clearance is finally over! After six different doctors appointments, countless phone calls and not to mention the most serious dental prodding Ive ever received(which consisted of twelve x-rays, and the poking of a needle into the gums of each of my teeth to measure depth for a jaw mapping or something) i am one step closer! Now since I have already been legally cleared i should be hearing back soon asking for an updated resume and status report and then I get my invitation!

Medical review

Nothing much new in the peace corps world, just felt like updating. Currently still working on my medical packet, which is quite the process. Have my medical and dental parts done, and I have the physical done, but the doctor didn’t have any polio vaccines, so now I need to find that. Which I have no idea how to do. I’ve been calling all over the place and everyone is just giving me the run around. Il find it eventually. Other then that I’m still trying to work on building my resume. Which isn’t working as well a I’d hoped because no one is really hiring. Oh well, we will see how it goes.

Nomination Continued

Just a minor update. My nomination has officially gone through. Now to move on to getting my medical clearance. I also need to get as much experience as possible to really beef up my app, because just because I am nominated doesn’t mean I am guaranteed that job. So now I am looking into volunteering and getting some certifications. But I am one step closer!