Leaving Tomorrow!

After more than a year of waiting, the time has finally come to leave for the Peace Corps. I fly from Raleigh/Durham to Philadelphia tomorrow morning for staging, which is basically orientation. Fingers crossed that the snow storm doesn't delay or cancel my flight!

To give you an idea of what I'll be doing in Malawi, I'm going to be an environmental volunteer. I'll probably be stationed in a village near one of Malawi's national parks or forest reserves, and will work with the national parks or forestry department, or an NGO, to deal with deforestation. That will be my primary job. I will also probably find secondary projects to do based on the needs of my community. For example, I may help improve agricultural productivity in the village, help a women's group start a small business cooperative, or work on AIDS prevention and treatment. There are many possibilities for what I'll be able to work on when I'm there, and I'll decide what to do after I talk with community members to see what they need.

One of the keys in Peace Corps work is to develop sustainable programs for the communities in which we serve. Anything I do will be done in a way that it can be continued by the host country nationals after I leave. I hope that I'll be able to make a lot of positive changes to help community members eventually pull themselves out of poverty and have a better quality of life. That said, I've also been forewarned that this type of work is often slow, and it can be difficult to acheive results. One thing I'll need to work on while there will be managing my own expectations, and being a little more laid-back about the way I work. We'll see how that goes!

In addition to my Peace Corps job, I also hope to do some writing while I'm there - personal writing, journalism, and maybe some sociological study. I'm taking a Flip video camera with me as well and hope to put together some pieces. I don't know how much I'll be able to post here because of slow Internet speeds, but I'll try to get some things up over the course of my time there. Let me know if there's anything in particular you're interested in seeing or hearing about.

I'm off to finish some last-minute details and finalize my packing arrangements. Keep your fingers crossed for my on-time departure tomorrow!

This may be my last post for a couple months, since I won't have Internet access at all during our initial training. But, I'll update again as soon as I'm able. Until then!