Eeny Meeny Miny Mo

Ok I can't help it. I've created a pro/con list for each country to help me work through my thoughts before I actually have to absorb the placement. I know it probably seems a bit neurotic, but it helps me. And it also serves as procrastination since I've gotten all caught up on all the television shows I watch!

Benin

pros: Jungles, the typical African atmosphere with humidity and heat! I've read a lot about Benin and feel a connection with the country already from spending hours imagining myself in the place of many PCV bloggers. West African culture is something I don't want to miss. Beaches. Higher standards of living than the others. Very democratically stable comparatively.

cons: Humidity sucks. Could be primarily speaking a super specific local language that may not be useful after the peace corps.

Mali

pros: Deserts and dry heat. West African culture ftw! Cool rock climbing locations. A lot of sweet history. Wicked music festival in the desert each year. Maybe I'd get placed in the village of the RPCV who wrote Mango Rains?

cons: No beaches, very landlocked. Lower standard of living than Benin/ is one of the top two most difficult programs for PC volunteers to serve in, I've heard.

Niger

pros: West Africa, desert. Cool Muslim influences. And still on the main land. Fulfulde is a cool sounding language, too.

cons: hot and dry. Very poor country and very politically unstable. PCVs have had to evacuate in the past.

Madagascar

pros: Madagascar is way cool. People know about it and think it's awesome. Malagasy is pretty sweet sounding. The "8th continent" has a lot of unique biodiversity and NICE weather. This is pretty much the only one of my options where the weather won't suck/be ridiculously hot all the time, but is still Africa. And super close to Tanzania where the amazing Lauren will be serving!

cons: Is it really Africa, though? It's not on the mainland which is a MAJOR bummer. There was a lot of political instability last year and the PC program was suspended for some time and only just re-opened up. There are only 11 volunteers there right now! I also really don't want to listen to people singing "I like to move it move it" constantly before I go.

So there's that! Murphy's law says that my placement will be Madagascar but we'll see. I'd be super happy no matter where I end up but I'll be honest up front that I would prefer the mainland. But if that's not in the cards for me, I'll make the most of it. Lemonade and all that.

E

The Rumor Mill

Word on the street is that the education desk has gotten out its invites up until the month of June. Now, I know that not everyone who is nominated for June has gotten an invitation, at least not a friend of mine nominated for Central/South American in the environmental sector. Soooo, I suppose I cannot really speculate about the progress of the health extension sector. They may or may not be up to speed. For some reason, the Benin wiki maintains that staging is in Philly on July 6th. Since no one to my knowledge has actually gotten an invite to Benin yet, I really don't know how they could be sure of that. Oh well. Assuming other placement offices are shortly behind the Education folks, they should be starting the July stagiers pretty soon...which means, I'll probably find out for sure in the next two weeks or three weeks. Since that's right about when I'll get my MCAT scores back, it had better be good news to make up for the bad I'm expecting haha.

In French today my group presented on Benin. It was sort of luck of the draw what francophone country we were assigned. Quelle coincidence! Our presentation was pretty ghetto...just some translated wikipedia facts and some random pics from some PC blogs. It was pretty funny because I already knew a hilarious amount of information about the country just from obsessively reading blogs. Someone mentioned the city Cotonou and I was like "oh, it's very dirty there." Haha

Apparently there is a bit of freedom in getting to select your placement in country. I think the regional directors give a questionnaire and your preferences are taken into account. I, for example, really would like to stay near a bigger city with electricity if possible. I know, I know, don't I want the REAL experience? Well, yeah. I don't think being able to charge my cell phone, have an electric fan, or a lamp is really going to diminish the fact that I'll be living in freaking Africa. I already know I'm hardcore. Running water is slightly less important to me. What IS important, maybe even more so than electricity, is access to vegetarian food stuff. I really do not want to have to sacrifice this part of me if I can avoid it. Maybe fish. I have acquiesced that much. Actually, if I am being really super honest, the idea of a little meat in a situation where I cannot really avoid it is actually a bit appealing. I haven't eaten meat in almost 6 years; maybe a couple years of a change wouldn't be so bad. But, if it's possible to stay totally vegetarian I am definitely going to do it. I'm just not going to starve myself or offend people to avoid meat. Beef, though? I don't think I can handle that. Fish is okay for now I think. We'll see.

Counting Down

I am trying to not have Restless Applicant Syndrome. It is not an easy condition to avoid, however. I wake up each day and check my email to see if there is the foreshadowed toolkit update message. But alas. I feel like I just want to know so that I can go buy a bunch of books about the country and learn its history and its people. I want to start creating a picture in my mind of what this experience will be, but I just think its too premature to begin doing that unless I have a country name and a specific date when I'd be leaving.

Benin. Staging dates in the beginning of July according to the Wiki and also doing some clever PC journals reconnaissance makes this West African country the most likely. I know this by spending way too much time at Peace Corps Journals.com, and looking at the Benin health extension volunteers' dates of staging. It seems like the most recent one was July 2009...which suggests a repeat performance this year. OF COURSE, I don't want to get my hopes up or anything and honestly I'd be happy anywhere in Africa, but if this is the place, that is seriously awesome. Birthplace of voodoo, beautiful beaches, history of Marxist-Leninist dictatorship?! What is there not to love?

I am so grateful to have a relatively obstacle free process going on here. There are so many potential applicants who don't get to this point or have to fight hard to get to where I am. So I am grateful for my waiting. I am glad to have the chance to have to fight off restless applicant syndrome!

Honestly, I am just anxious to be finished with college and I am ready to move onto my next adventure. If that experience can impact the lives of others in a positive way than I am even more anxious to begin. This is the opportunity of my life here and not something that realistically I will ever be able to do again in the same way. I am not naive and don't plan on saving the world or anything. I am well aware that the person who will most be impacted by my service is myself and I am okay with that. We are a global society, but we know so little about each other. If I can represent America to a few people, perhaps some of that misunderstanding can be alleviated. I guess that's what peace really is.

On Track!

After a couple months of worry, I decided to try to get in touch with someone to figure out what was up. So I emailed my recruitment officer who told me that everything looked completely on track and to let her know if I hadn't heard about an official invitation by MARCH. MARCH!! That's like 2 months away from now! This whole process is really testing my ability to go with the flow. I usually label myself as a laid back, obsessive planner...which seems like a mutally exclusive combination, but it fits me!

"On track" to me indicates a couple important things. Namely that I am still being considered for my original program that I was nominated for: Health Extension in Francophone Africa leaving July 2010. That means that my conditional medical clearance doesn't seem to be hindering my ability to get an invitation to a West African country. Yay! I decided that I really don't want to go anywhere else, so the fact that Africa is still on the table is pretty darn important for my future as a PCV!

I've also started trying to figure out what country I'm heading for...which is fun to do when I'm procrastinating for the MCAT (which...is tomorrow incidentally). Looking at the Peace Corps Wiki shows that Benin is the most likely (based on staging dates), but another possibility could be Mali (staging dates the last couple years seem to be July...so...yeah). It doesn't seem like my dream locale, Senegal, is on the list for most likely, but you never know with those crazy Peace Corps cats.

As for here, it's cold as can be (I thought I just left the insane cold that was this Kansas winter!!?) but I guess a cold New England winter is not out of the ordinary, haha. This weather makes me want Africa all the more. Seriously, I would be in heaven to have sweat dripping down my body out in the sun right now. But I'm a big kitty cat so that makes sense.

Ok, MCAT mode. Later!

-Elaina