the next two weeks

March 1-4: NY (two more days of work, pack, Behind the Scenes at Hot Bread Kitchen, New Blue alum dinner, pack ...)
March 5-7: DC (see as many people as possible)
March 7-12: CT (unpack, pack, etc)
March 13: NY (potluck! come say goodbye!)
March 14: Philadelphia (staging with the rest of the trainees)
March 15: MOROCCO

wow.

twenty days and counting

... or less, actually.

I was so frustrated when I got delayed in the fall, but everything's really worked out pretty well. I'm finishing up at two amazing jobs (check out two organizations doing really awesome work of very different kinds: Demos and Hot Bread Kitchen,) I've gotten to spend a lot of time with my family, and I've gotten to see so many friends in New York and elsewhere. I'm sure that if I had left without establishing these post-college friendships, I probably would have lost touch with a lot more people.

Definitely excited, starting to get nervous about being away for so long, wondering if I'll remember any Arabic, trying not to Google the weather in Morocco too often ... 

how I got here

If you're curious about the application process, or wondering why I'm still in the U.S. when I told you six months ago that I was about to leave, this is from a journal I kept during the past two years:

10/22/09: Open application on the PC website.
12/21/09: Submit completed application and health questionnaire.
1/1/10: Receive fingerprint and background check forms by mail.
1/15/10: Get fingerprinted at the New Haven police station; submit background check forms and transcripts by mail.
1/29/10: Interview in New York with a recruiter. She is nice and tells me I'd be hearing about a nomination soon.
2/3/10: Receive nomination by email from recruiter. Nomination is for NGO development with a community health organization, Portuguese-speaking post in sub-Saharan Africa, departure late September 2010 (Mozambique). Accept nomination immediately and start setting up doctor's appointments for medical clearance papers.
3/1 to 4/3/10: Eight (8!) doctor's appointments (eyes, teeth, physical, ob-gyn, blood, shots, and more.) Submit medical clearance paperwork. Receive notification that it won't be reviewed until three months before my nominated departure date, which means late May.
5/25/10: Receive phone call (while in Salt Lake City airport on the way to Hawaii, by the by) saying they've begun reviewing my medical paperwork, and did I think I would be able to leave earlier than September? They have a post they'd like to fill. I say I don't think I'd be able to do the follow-up medical work until I get back from World Tour in mid-July, so probably not. They say no problem.
5/28/10: Receive notice that there is a medical hold on my application and I'd be receiving more info by mail. Too bad I'm going to be traveling for two months and can't do anything about it.
7/15/10: Get back from World Tour and make four more doctor's appointments (more blood drawn, allergy testing, and two separate dentist trips).
7/23/10: Submit additional medical paperwork.
7/29/10: Receive notification of medical clearance. Read online that you have to get invited at least 6 weeks before the departure date and start getting nervous about a mid- to late-September departure.
8/5/10: Call the PC placement office to check on application status; am told by phone that I have been medically disqualified from my original nomination. No more information but I'd be hearing soon. Start looking for jobs. Great birthday present.
8/18/10: Receive request for and send updated resume and transcript to Placement.
8/31/10: Receive notification that I won't be leaving in late September (big shock) and that since there are few programs departing in the rest of the year, I'll probably be re-placed for a 2011 departure. Apply for more jobs.
9/2/10: Final phone interview with a placement officer. Among other things, she asks how I would feel about Morocco (I talked a little in my original interview in February about a difficult study abroad summer I had there a few years ago.) Later in the day, she emails to ask for my updated mailing address to send my invitation(!).
9/13/10: Invitation still hasn't arrived. About to tear hair out. Finally get UPS tracking number from placement officer and realized it's been sitting in a UPS holding facility in Rockaway for a week because the PC office forgot my apartment number in the address. Spend two hours on the B-35 going to retrieve it. MOROCCO. March 14, 2011. NGO development.
9/14/10: Officially accept invitation to Morocco. What to do with the next six months?

I did get a job (two actually) in the meantime. And then ...

12/13/10: Receive call from Morocco country desk saying the NGO development program has been cancelled. Will hear from a placement officer to find another option, either another country (which means waiting longer) or another assignment in Morocco, by the end of the week.
12/16/10: Speak to placement officer again, who says I can choose between health education and environmental education in Morocco. I have one day to decide and not nearly enough information.
12/18/10: Stretch that one day into two and finally email her back. Environment it is. Same departure date (phew.)

Now it's hoping that there are no more hurdles before March 14! And getting some other stuff done too.

T - 33 days

I'm leaving on March 14 for staging in Philadelphia with the rest of my training group for Peace Corps/Morocco, all health and environment sector, then flying out the next day. We'll all be together in one of the big cities for a few days, then split up according to the language we're learning and the job we'll be doing. We'll train in small groups (less than 10 I think) for about two months before we're actually assigned to our sites. So no, I don't know where I'll be living after about May or June. Or before then, for that matter. One thing I'm getting used to is the number of unknowns inherent to this whole experience, which I don't expect to change any time soon.

Though I haven't been that into blogs since early high school (some Kent friends might remember that), this is going to be my attempt to keep all the people in my life posted. As basically everyone who knows me knows, I'm not the best at returning emails and phone calls in a timely manner, so hopefully a blog will suffice in the meantime.

A few things about Morocco and the Peace Corps, basically my answers to some frequently asked questions that I've gotten a lot over the past five months: 

• Morocco's about the size of California (shocking! most map projections make Africa look much smaller than it is). 
• Similar to California, it has sandy, beautiful beaches, temperate in-between zones, a serious desert (the Sahara), and pretty tall mountain ranges that remain snow-capped all year. 
• Because of this, the climate varies a ton and can get pretty cold in the winter, so I'm bringing some solid winter gear after reading the advice of current volunteers. 
• Urban and educated people in Morocco speak French, but I almost certainly won't be in a city, so I'll either be learning Moroccan Arabic, which is pretty different than the standard Arabic I took in school, or one of two Berber dialects. 
• I'm working as an Environmental Educator, but who knows what that will actually mean. 
• Although Morocco is one of the largest Peace Corps programs by number of volunteers, I'll probably be the only volunteer in my village, or maybe even region. 

So we'll see how the blog updating thing actually goes ...