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Some friends have asked how to subscribe to my blog. Go to www.wordpress.com and create a Username and Password. Activate your account (it's free!) by checking your email and following the directions. Then, go to Google and type in the following: "Peace Corps A Traveler's Journal jessiegirl03". You should only get one result from your search. Click on the result. In the upper right-hand corner you will see in white a link which reads "Blog Info" Please click. Then click on "Subscribe to Blog" and follow the direction. Voulla! Now each time I post a blog, it will be sent to your email address and you will not have to check the website at random. Isn't technology grand?! But I am sorry about all the steps. Didn't realize it would take so much. All my best!
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Saturday, May 3, 2008
Good Things Come To Those Who Wait
Hello dear friends,
The news I have been waiting 16 months to hear arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon, May 2, 2008. On April 3 I received the long awaited phone call only to hear disappointing news that broke my heart. I wasn't going to Africa. Due to my knee surgery 3 years ago, the Peace Corps felt that Central Asia would be a safer place for me. Central Asia is made up of Terkmenestan and Kazakstan and other countries of similar reputations. I was upset and confused and even hurt over the decision, but came to realize that where wasn't important. I did not join the Peace Corps to travel to Africa. I joined the Peace Corps to travel, gain life experience (become a better writer due to those experiences), and to make a difference in the world. So four weeks after my phone call, my letter arrived. My father picked up the mail like every other day and was shocked and happy to see the large packet waiting in the mail box marked Peace Corps. Now, out of all the ways I pictured finding out where I was going, I never imagined it would turn out the way it did. Dad called my sisters and my Grandparents to tell them where I was going, because he was able to read through the envelope as to my destination. I couldn't believe it. My younger sister called my cousin Ashely, who happened to be sitting in the passenger seat of my car next to me, and told her the news as well. So there you go. My Dad, sisters and Grandparents all knew the coveted destination. Armed with this knowledge, I couldn't possibly wait the 2 hour drive from Seattle to home to finally know the truth myself. So I called Mom who had just arrived home herself. She picked up the package, (after scolding my father) and looked through the envelope herself. She gasped. I said, "What? Where am I going? Georgia? Did I make it to at least Georgia?" My mother pauses, "No, you're going to the...." (I hold my breath) "The Philippines!" AAAAAAHHHHHHH! I screamed and my cousin instantly declared herself deaf forever. I was so happy I began to cry. My youngest sister decided that I had won the Peace Corps jackpot, proving that good things do come to those who wait. I am so relieved to finally know, to be happy where I'm going and to be blessed with such a lovely destination. Oh--and no, the Philippines is not in Central Asia. I don't know what that phone call was about. The Philippines is a series of islands in a tropical environment in the South China Sea. My departure date, which I learned upon my arrival at home, is August 13. I will begin orientation 8/13/08 in my stating city, which may be Seattle or San Francisco, and then leave from there for my 3 month training session in the country itself. I will live with two host families, but will not know where and whom until after training in November. I will be tutoring English in classrooms and orphanages, and will also help establish a library somewhere in the country. I will return to the states after my service November 2010, to those who are wondering. I still need to call the placement officer next week to confirm my whole-hearted acceptance of the assignment, and then it is official. I fill out more forms, but otherwise, I just wait to leave. And enjoy the moments shared with my family and friends. Thank you to all of you who have been waiting patiently with me. Your encouragement has helped keep my spirits high. I shall post again before I leave. Have a wonderful summer! More to Follow...
The news I have been waiting 16 months to hear arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon, May 2, 2008. On April 3 I received the long awaited phone call only to hear disappointing news that broke my heart. I wasn't going to Africa. Due to my knee surgery 3 years ago, the Peace Corps felt that Central Asia would be a safer place for me. Central Asia is made up of Terkmenestan and Kazakstan and other countries of similar reputations. I was upset and confused and even hurt over the decision, but came to realize that where wasn't important. I did not join the Peace Corps to travel to Africa. I joined the Peace Corps to travel, gain life experience (become a better writer due to those experiences), and to make a difference in the world. So four weeks after my phone call, my letter arrived. My father picked up the mail like every other day and was shocked and happy to see the large packet waiting in the mail box marked Peace Corps. Now, out of all the ways I pictured finding out where I was going, I never imagined it would turn out the way it did. Dad called my sisters and my Grandparents to tell them where I was going, because he was able to read through the envelope as to my destination. I couldn't believe it. My younger sister called my cousin Ashely, who happened to be sitting in the passenger seat of my car next to me, and told her the news as well. So there you go. My Dad, sisters and Grandparents all knew the coveted destination. Armed with this knowledge, I couldn't possibly wait the 2 hour drive from Seattle to home to finally know the truth myself. So I called Mom who had just arrived home herself. She picked up the package, (after scolding my father) and looked through the envelope herself. She gasped. I said, "What? Where am I going? Georgia? Did I make it to at least Georgia?" My mother pauses, "No, you're going to the...." (I hold my breath) "The Philippines!" AAAAAAHHHHHHH! I screamed and my cousin instantly declared herself deaf forever. I was so happy I began to cry. My youngest sister decided that I had won the Peace Corps jackpot, proving that good things do come to those who wait. I am so relieved to finally know, to be happy where I'm going and to be blessed with such a lovely destination. Oh--and no, the Philippines is not in Central Asia. I don't know what that phone call was about. The Philippines is a series of islands in a tropical environment in the South China Sea. My departure date, which I learned upon my arrival at home, is August 13. I will begin orientation 8/13/08 in my stating city, which may be Seattle or San Francisco, and then leave from there for my 3 month training session in the country itself. I will live with two host families, but will not know where and whom until after training in November. I will be tutoring English in classrooms and orphanages, and will also help establish a library somewhere in the country. I will return to the states after my service November 2010, to those who are wondering. I still need to call the placement officer next week to confirm my whole-hearted acceptance of the assignment, and then it is official. I fill out more forms, but otherwise, I just wait to leave. And enjoy the moments shared with my family and friends. Thank you to all of you who have been waiting patiently with me. Your encouragement has helped keep my spirits high. I shall post again before I leave. Have a wonderful summer! More to Follow...
Friday, March 14, 2008
Patience is a Virtue
I remember writing a blog last August about hope. I wrote that the loss of hope is the greatest tragedy. Dante believed it was the ultimate sin, to despair. I wrote that is is impossible to lose all hope; man is made of hope. Having hope is as essential as needing air to breathe or love to function. We all live in hopes. I felt that I was despairing last Tuesday for I had yet to hear from the Peace Corps (and I hadn't slept in weeks). Yet, for some reason, I awoke Wednesday feeling refreshed and renewed. I just knew that everything was going to work out. I had faith and hope that all would be well. And shortly after making this revelation, I received the long awaited phone call from one of my placement officers. Not the call, but a call. He called to ask me a few minor questions and to inform me that I should receive the call in the next couple of weeks. I no longer have any holds on my status; my file has been reviewed. Now I wait for the call that says "Congratulations!" Once I receive the call I wait for a letter to arrive that has the exact location details. Once I know which country has invited me, I have 10 days to accept or decline the offer. At this point, I could be placed in the middle of Antarctica and still go. (No, that won't happen.) Once you've reached this point in your application process, you know you're going. I find it insane to believe anyone would say no at this point.After all, I've had over a year to make my decision. I don't care where in Africa I go, I'm just so excited to have the opportunity. So yes, I must remain patient. But at least my hope has been restored. I know that it is only a matter of time (less than a month) until I hear the news I've waited nearly 15 months for. Now I anxiously wait to hear the sweet sound of my ringtone with the 202 area code displayed so brightly on my cell screen. With luck and prayers, my patience will finally be rewarded.
More to follow...
More to follow...
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Waiting on the World
Actually, I'm waiting on my placement officer. I applied for the Peace Corps mid-January 2007. I was nominated June 2007 and it took six months before I was medically qualified for service. Now, 49 days after learning that I was approved, I'm still waiting for my placement officer to call with the wonderful and uplifting news that he has found me a country that has invited me to stay for the next 27 months. I rememeber thinking 27 months was such a long time last summer. I still had my doupts about leaving home. But now that I've had this time to think, I cannot express my excitement.
Joining the Peace Corps was not a light decision. It has been something I have thought about doing nearly five years now. I recently graduated from Washington State University with my BA in English and the inevitable question a year before graduation sprung..."now what?" I have always been in love with travel. I always knew I would never stay in one place for too long. Two years in Pullman, WA showed me that I can be apart from my loved ones. I know that 3-5 days instead of 7 hours will seperate us this time, but I'm confident in my dreams to know that I will not look back and ever regret my decision.
Each day that goes by and I still have not heard from my placement officer, I despair a little more. My life is in limbo right now, and I greatly wish to move on and strike out on my own. I will miss my family and friends, but I so will cherish my next adventure. If life is a journey, then I want to make the most out of the time I have. People often ask me "why?" when I explain about the Peace Corps. I answer that Robert Frost said it all with his poem Road Less Traveled. "Two roads diverged in a wood/ And I took the one less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference."
More to follow...
Joining the Peace Corps was not a light decision. It has been something I have thought about doing nearly five years now. I recently graduated from Washington State University with my BA in English and the inevitable question a year before graduation sprung..."now what?" I have always been in love with travel. I always knew I would never stay in one place for too long. Two years in Pullman, WA showed me that I can be apart from my loved ones. I know that 3-5 days instead of 7 hours will seperate us this time, but I'm confident in my dreams to know that I will not look back and ever regret my decision.
Each day that goes by and I still have not heard from my placement officer, I despair a little more. My life is in limbo right now, and I greatly wish to move on and strike out on my own. I will miss my family and friends, but I so will cherish my next adventure. If life is a journey, then I want to make the most out of the time I have. People often ask me "why?" when I explain about the Peace Corps. I answer that Robert Frost said it all with his poem Road Less Traveled. "Two roads diverged in a wood/ And I took the one less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference."
More to follow...
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