What:
So you have probably gathered that I am headed to the Peace Corps! You also may be wondering exactly what that entails but have been too afraid to ask me for reasons I will never understand, because I am not a scary person. But the mission of the Peace Corps is, in essence,
- To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women!
- To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served!
- To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans!
Or, more simply, Peace Corps sends volunteers to work alongside and collaborate with local communities on agricultural, business, educational, environmental, and health projects, all while fostering a cultural exchange between Americans and whichever country the volunteer lands in. For me in particular, I've been assigned to work with Peace Corps Senegal's PROSPERE program as a Preventive Health Educator. More on my assignment will become more specific as I move through training, but my program focuses the most on nutrition, environmental health, health of vulnerable groups (such as malaria, maternal health, immunizations), and environmental education.
But in order to get to the point where I do all of those things, I first have to go through staging and training. Tomorrow I start my staging: it's basically just the process of preparation and sending me and my group off to Senegal. Over two days, we go over orientation material, get some last minute immunizations, and then jump on a plane to Senegal.
For the first 2-3 months, my group and I will be in Peace Corps Training (PCT). We will live with host families, work on learning some local languages like Wolof and Pulaar, and become masters of technical skills that will pertain to our jobs. I'm definitely looking forward to having a lot of time to really absorb all of the information before I actually start working: this is one of the benefits of the Peace Corps program. They don't throw you to the wolves (ARE THERE EVEN WOLVES IN SENEGAL? I don't know yet). Allowing time for cultural adjustment and helping the volunteers really learn the languages and skills is definitely a priority.
So after that initial training period, we hopefully all move on to our individual sites. Sometimes volunteers are in villages, sometimes larger cities. Sometimes they are grouped with other volunteers, sometimes they are long, quad-defining bike rides from the nearest American. Where I end up remains to be seen. So in the meantime, I'm looking forward to staging and PCT... and hopefully you now understand those words! See? We are all learning here!
But seriously, I hope that everyone now has a better feeling for what is happening here. In the meantime, I'm off to sign my life insurance policies and enjoy some hot cocoa while I lounge in the deliciousness of food made by Katie, Nick, and Katie's roommate Dana! Yeah!
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