One more week

Next Monday ( November 2nd) at 6:15 am CST, my plane leaves for Philadelphia for "staging". Staging, beginning at 12:15 pm EST on November 2nd, is an orientation for the Peace Corps and will include talks regarding the history of the Peace Corps, risk management, and policies. The talks will come to a close around 7:00 pm EST. On November 3rd, we will be given our State Department passports and, I think, our Kenyan work visas. We will then hop in a bus (or buses) and make our way to JFK International Airport. We depart JFK for Kenya that evening, connecting in Zurich around 7:00 am Zurich time.

I'm excited about starting my adventure, but I'm more excited about meeting the people who will be started a similar adventure. There will be around 40 to 45 other trainees in Philadelphia who will be with me until January 6, 2010. I'm so eager to learn more about this select group of individuals. Everyone in my training class will be working in education; some will be chemistry teachers, some math teachers, some biology, some physics, and some will be deaf educators. I'm still unsure on exactly what I will be doing. My invitation said I would be in "Secondary Math Education," but the day before my assignment was made, my placement officer asked if I would be comfortable with using sign language as part of my job. I'm not sure why they would ask me that and then not put me in deaf education.

Maybe I'm a special case. I have three years of teaching mathematics and have a conversational ability in American Sign Language. Deaf students will still be required to learn math, so maybe I will be helping out in this way. Only time will tell what I will actually be doing; fortunately it is just around the corner.

I will definitely have reliable internet access from now until I leave from JFK on November 3rd, so I will definitely make sure to update the blog until then.

Until next time. . ..

Update on Peace Corps

It's been a while since I updated my status with the Peace Corps. So here goes:

I was invited to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya's secondary education program. During my placement, my placement officer asked if I would be comfortable using sign language in conjunction with my job --I had two semesters of American Sign Language at UCA. I said I didn't have a problem with using sign language. I believe this is one of the reasons I was invited to Kenya. As of now, there are education groups going to Kenya, Gambia, Guinea, and Lesotho in November. So my assignment will most likely be with a deaf school, since Kenya has a deaf population of over 800,000.

I will be at Staging on November 2nd and 3rd in either Washington, DC, or Philly. November 2nd will be filled with welcome speaches, get-to-know-each-other games, and orientation topics concerning life in Kenya. On the 3rd, we will wrap up the orientation sessions and arrive at the airport. Pre-Service Training (PST) will start in Loitokitok, Kenya on the 4th of November and will come to an end on January 6th, 2010. At PST, they will let me know that village I will be assigned to for the next 2 years.

I sent in the documents for my passport and Kenyan visa today. I have to write a few papers for the people already in Kenya so they can get an idea on the kind of person I am. I have to do this today (or tomorrow at the lastest). The next thing to come in my adventure with the Peace Corps is my Staging Kit. This will provide an agenda for Staging, a more in-depth packing list, and more information regarding my assignment. After the kit arrives, I will have to contact PC's travel agent to arrange my flight to the staging city. Then I just wait until November comes around.

This has been a long process, as you can see from the timeline on the right side of the page. I'm happy to get this adventure started. Because it has taken so long, it won't seem "real" until I say my goodbyes and get on the plane to go to Staging. I'm so excited about this upcoming journey and know it will impact my life tremendously.

Until next time. . .