Drowning in paperwork!

Inside the glorious blue portfolio that is the Peace Corps Invitation Kit is a whole lot of paper–that’s a whole lot of blanks that need to be filled out and a whole host of issues to be taken care of–loans. insurance. Passport/visa. Aspiration Statement and Resume. Staging registration. Press release for hometown newspapers…..Now I was expecting an onslaught of activity after three months of waiting, but wow–there’s so much to think about. I got the passport and visa application materials mailed off yesterday afternoon (and they arrived in DC today–thank you, Peace Corps, for the Next-Day UPS envelope). Now I am working on my resume and aspiration statement, which I hope to spend a lot of time on this weekend to make sure everything looks good.

Up until now, I’ve been kind of mentally putting off the idea of figuring out what I need for two years in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially since I didn’t know exactly where I was going. Now I can’t avoid it. At least I learned my lesson the first time around (from being in Uganda) that I don’t need even half of the stuff I think I need. I’m going for minimalist this time–we’ll see how it works out. I’m pretty sure my luggage for Uganda was over 80 pounds, and that was for a few months–I’m definitely going to have to be selective about what I bring.

Also opened up my toolkit today to find some new goodies: a series of French and Bambara lessons! Well, more like short audio clips with basic phrases. I guess it’s supposed to be a “pause and repeat after me” type of thing. I have to give PC props for trying to get us prepared, but I think I’m going to still get Rosetta Stone from my friend Tana (thanks Tana!), since I feel like my French conversational skills are going to be a bit rusty and a series of audio clips won’t necessarily bring it all back to me.

It still hasn’t totally hit me than in 2.5 months exactly, I will be in Mali. But I’ve never felt so ready for anything. I’ve worked and dreamed and obsessed about this for the past eight months, and now I have a real, tangible date in the very near future when everything I’ve been hoping for is coming to fruition. It’s an awesome feeling, but still doesn’t seem 100% real.  I’ll probably have an “oh crap, I’m really doing this” moment once I get on the plane to start service. In the meantime, the Peace Corps supplied me with plenty of paperwork to distract myself .

I’ll post my aspiration statement once I finish it this weekend.

A bientot,

Jojo