Sweet! Got my staging kit!
I finally did get my staging kit... they said it would come 30 days before we were supposed to leave for ze gambia, and I think they made me wait 31. Not very nice to do to over-excited girls like me... But it didn't really say much, except that, yes, we are going to the Gambia and I will get to be a PC volunteer, and yes I'll being doing something involving the ever-elusive "environment"...ah the vagueness! The staging event is like a conference, in Philly, just giving us the run-down of PC rules and what-not. I'll be meeting the whole crew of gambian PCVs, and, I have to get shots, God help me, probably lots of them.
So I'm packing... trying not to defeat the purpose of living simply by buying too much stuff..
Things I Have Bought:
-Camera- a Vupoint, can play movies, record voice and video and play music. Lo me gusta mucho.
-Hydration Pack- which I already love like my firstborn
-KEENS- you know, the shoes- which yes, are an ugly overpriced outdoorsy-people fad, but are really doing the trick and i'm starting to love them too
-Bug spray- DEET-free, expensive stuff developed in Florida so I believe them
-some clothes, books, art stuff
I know I'll be speaking one of 5 tribal languages, which I'm gonna have to be fairly fluent in after 10 weeks in the Gambia so that I can be sworn in. During that training time, we'll living in a rural area with a host family, near-ish I guess to where we will eventually be placed. From the blogs I've read it seems like "they" decide where you're gonna go and therefore what language you'll be speaking within like 2 days of getting there. It's cool, who doesn't like surprises? Like, Hey! Here's your life for the next two years!! Why does our government expect us to just trust them so often?
They gave me a CD, that has online materials on like how to keep bees, how to dig a well, how to build a building, how to grow rice, ect. Ya know, stuff you always wanted to know. Funny, but I can't wait to learn.
So yay-ah, if anyone has any advice or good stuff like that, totally tell me. I'm SO excited yall!
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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. Thoreau
My Address
Stephanie Rayburn
U.S. Peace Corps
P.O. Box 582
Banjul, The Gambia, West Africa
That's it! Should do the trick for the next 2 years. Write me now.
About Me
My Pictures
Blog Posts by Category
- Guatemala/Road Trip Ramblings (2)
- Life Pre-Africa (4)
- Silly Stuff (4)
- The Gambia (7)
blog posts by month
My Favorite Things
- Freewill Astrology; wierd and awesome horoscopes
- SEED; "science is culture" one of the coolest magazines ever...
- Self-Realization Fellowship; for when you need some inspiration of the spiritual kind
- 911Truth; questions what went down
- Susan In Sudan; met this women in Guatemala, she's in Sudan doing interesting stuff
- Cerridwen, an ag.fo from my group, way up country, a Mandinka
- Nick, from my ag.fo group, in the western division, a mandinka
- Jim, an ed. volunteer
- Becca, fellow North Banker, ed. volunteer
- One Revolution- Matt Storer, a Gambian ed. volunteer
- Erin, Mandinka fellow PCV... from Oregon, likes pink
- Cam- agfo, up-country Fula volunteer's blog (mostly from his past travels)
- Alex- another PCV friend, he's Fula
- Mandy's blog- fellow woolof PCV
- If you're sending a package... stuff to know
- PeaceCorpsJournal; a collection of blogs from PCV's in all countries
The Littlest Birds Sing the Prettiest Songs
You pass through places
/And places pass through you
/But you carry 'em with you
/On the souls of your travelling shoes
/Well it's times like these
/I feel so small and wild
Like the ramblin' footsteps of a wanderin' child
-The Be Good Tanyas
1 comment:
Stephanie,
I just came across your journal about your invitation to The Gambia. I added a link to your page to a database I collected of Peace Corps Journals and blogs:
Worldwide PC Blog Directory:
http://www.PeaceCorpsJournals.com/
Features:
1. Contains over 1,500 journals and blogs from Peace Corps Volunteers serving around the world.
2. Official rules and regulations for current PCV online Journals and blogs. Those rules were acquired from Peace Corps Headquarters using the Freedom of Information Act.
3. The map for every country becomes interactive, via Google, once clicked on.
4. Contact information for every Peace Corps staff member worldwide.
5. Links to Graduate School Programs affiliated with Peace Corps, along with RPCVs Regional Associations.
6. And each country has its own detailed page, which is easily accessible with a possible slow Internet connection within the field.
There is also an e-mail link on every page. If you want to add a journal, spotted a dead link, or have a comment.
Thanks for volunteering with the Peace Corps!
-Mike Sheppard
RPCV / The Gambia (’03-’05)
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