Switched to WordPress as some people claimed Blogger doesn't work in Ethiopia. That's bullshit? Doesn't change the fact I've switched.

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Reggae and Amharic

I've been doing lots of research on Ethiopia the last few weeks, though not as much since I've been in Florida fighting through theme park crowds lately. I found out that Ethiopia is pretty much the birthplace of reggae culture, and that the word Rastafarian is based in the Ethiopian language Amharic. It makes me wonder if the Peace Corps could have put me any place further from my interests. But then I get excited, because I know that I'll be able to take an interest in and understand a culture that has never been in my path, in my line of sight. Maybe it also means that my family will be less likely to understand and empathize when I get back, but that's something that I'll have to prepare to deal with. Reverse-culture shock made me confused and miserable for six months after I got back from Japan, and I'm hoping that experience will help me deal with it in August of 2014.

We've been sent loads of Amharic material that will help us transition. Turns out Amharic, while difficult to learn for English-speakers, is not as difficult as Japanese (officially, nothing is) so that is somewhat of a comfort. The language sounds beautiful, but there are over 200 characters that I'll have to learn. I'm starting today with five, and just learning five characters and 10 words a day until...well probably for a good long time.

My first semester in Japan consisted of 10 weeks of intensive, 5 hours a day of Japanese study. Amharic lessons, as far as I have seen, will be around 4-5 hours a day for about a month, then we'll all have a second language to add to it. So, I'm thinking I'm not going to be very good in either language. At all. But I'm really really really excited to try!

Anyway, mostly positive feelings, some overwhelmed feelings. Departure is coming up really fast, and I still feel like there's so much purchasing and saying goodbye that I have to do yet. Most of it will have to wait until I get back to Michigan on Monday. Until then, I'm going to bug my family by trying to speak in Amharic to them! They have to learn this shit too goddamnit!

:)

Sad Day

So I've been prepping my bosses and coworkers for weeks that I'm quitting soon. My last day at the Kroc Center was today, and I spent four hours at work this morning playing with toddlers for the last time. I sort of said my goodbyes to my coworkers over the weekend, but today a couple of kids came in who I see almost every week, and I just felt so grateful that I got to see them. I was even friends with their mother; one of the girls was only 1, and she used to cry every time she was left there. I was there and able to calm her down the first couple of times, so their mother starting asking for me after that. The girl has since become comfortable enough to stay without any fuss, but the mom still always recognizes me and is very nice to me.

Me: Lucy fell down today while she was playing with the walker. She didn't cry or anything, but she does have a little red mark on her forehead....

Lucy's Mom: So you hit her.

Me: Exactly.

Lucy's Mom: Haha, okay, well we'll see you next time!

So I made sure to hug both girls and play with them the whole time, and at some point I thought, "I'm so glad I got to see them...." which was fine, but was then followed by, "...because I'll probably never see them again." And I just started to feel absolutely awful, and even teared up a little. Then their mom came in and I helped to put their shoes on, and I thought about telling her that it was my last day, but I realized that I wouldn't be able to do it without crying, so I just let it go and hoped that my coworker wouldn't say anything. They left, and I felt even worse.

I love my coworkers there, and my job is really easy and fun, but having it's knowing that I'll never play with some of those kids again that really disturbs me. I've gotten to know some of them so well, watched them grow even.

One little girl never spoke a word of English the first couple of months she came, up until last week when she was using words and sentences in English, and she was so much happier!

Like Lucy, several toddlers cried the first several times they came in, until they warmed up to us and started crying when they had to leave instead.

A 4-year-old boy came in for the first time on Saturday and started crying in the corner when there were no other kids to play with. We promised to find his dad and I sat with him and colored, looked out the window and talked with him about the pool, his siblings, his school, until he was having a great time. When he left I asked if he would like to come back and play some more some time, and he asked, "Will you be here next time?" And I said yes to make sure that he was comfortable, and he agreed to come back. I know that I'll probably never see him again.

After work I ran some errands, had lunch (watched some Avatar), and went to tutoring. It was another easy day, chatting with my students, running vocabulary drills, and chatting with Laurie. At the end of the day I spoke with her about assigning my students to new tutors, which I had avoided doing because they didn't get along with the other tutors except Laurie, who has plenty of students. I finally decided who to put with who, and went into the main room to add my students to other tutors' lists. Just writing their names, names that I'd written at least twice a week for the last six months, names of students who I'd seen, worked, and spoken with several times a week since October, onto lists for other people, felt awful. I started tearing up again, sniffling, and trying to joke about it to avoid seeming callous without actually crying.

I keep telling the kids that I'll visit the school again in September of 2014, when they're all seniors. They keep joking that I won't be able to recognize them, and vice versa. I'm pretty sure that's true.

I hope I don't cry Thursday, when I actually have to say goodbye to them.

Timeline

March 19, 2011 -- Submitted Application
March 30, 2011 -- Submitted Background Checks and Transcripts
May 24, 2011 -- Interview
July 7, 2011 -- Nominated
January 24, 2012 -- Submitted Medical Kit
February 1, 2012 -- Dental Clearance
February 9, 2012 -- Submitted Additional Medical Documents
February 10, 2012 -- Medical Clearance
February 17, 2012 -- Submitted Updated Resume
March 15, 2012 -- Email from PO
March 21, 2012 -- Placement Interview
March 26, 2012 -- Received Invitation
March 27, 2012 -- Accepted Invitation

Invitation Packet

So, after taking a day to really consider what I was doing -- and finding that I was way more excited and eager than worried and scared -- I sent in my acceptance email for Ethiopia.

I had briefly looked in the invitation packet and found myself overwhelmed. Now I knew I would have to look over everything, fill out and send in every form...I'm still working on it, actually, because it just seems like so much.

Making up a new resume was the easiest, especially since they give you the exact format they want. Then I wrote an awkward aspiration statement and sent in both files.

Next, I made an appointment for a Yellow Fever vaccine. They were out at the health department, but they had some at a local clinic. Apparently, a large portion of people who get the vaccine experience flu-like symptoms, so I was looking forward to that. I just got a headache and a $135 bill. The Peace Corps will reimburse me if I don't lose the receipt.....

During this I worked on my visa and PC passport applications. They were fairly simple, and I had a couple of pictures taken at Walgreens. I sent everything in in an envelope provided in the packet, postage paid and all. Two days later, while I was halfway to town on a family bike ride, I received a call from SATO Travel saying that my visa form had ripped and I scratched something out on the passport form, so I'd have to redo both. I did, paid $3 for postage and sent it back in. The nice man at SATO Travel called me Monday to let me know it all looks okay now.

I took a few minutes to fill out information for the local papers yesterday. Apparently, they send the same information to all papers in the area in case they want to let the community know what I'm doing... seems awkward, but I like talking to people, so maybe it will be fun to answer random questions from people who saw my photo in the paper.

I filled out a few insurance forms and didn't sign them, as I'm supposed to wait until training. I think that's about it.

I got three bills in the mail yesterday from a collection agency in Niles saying that I owed the hospital over $700. So...I'm assuming that they're referring to the blood work that my clinic sent there when I had my physical in October, but I never got billed for that, and I assumed that the expenses form I gave to my doctor went to cover it. So, I sent a letter to the collection agency asking for more information, and sent in an application for DHS to maybe pay it. It's disappointing, because I have this huge list of things I need to buy before I go, and I was only hoping I'd have enough money for most of it...$700 breaks me.

So, I still need to fax in my Yellow Fever vaccine info, which is on a nifty yellow WHO card, making me feel like a world explorer.

But everything I've read about Ethiopia makes me more excited about going. I watched a couple of videos on Youtube today of current volunteers, and it looked crazy! But so completely doable!

I get to quit my jobs at the end of the month and spend 10 days on vacation with my family in Tennessee and Florida. Then a couple weeks to finish packing, and I'm off! I'm not going to work the last couple of weeks, but I decided I would still try to volunteer in Niles. I love that place, and I'm going to miss the people there so much.

Ethiopia!

My invitation arrived Monday night, much sooner than I expected!

Over the weekend, I'd compiled a list of the countries I was hoping to get. Burkina Faso was at the top, followed by Ethiopia, Senegal, and Benin, all for various reasons. My dad had been making fun of me over Ethiopia: he says that in the 60's and 70's it was considered the worst place in the world.

So when I opened my packet, my first emotion was amusement. Because I was going to Ethiopia!

The packet is huge, and I've been going through it for almost a full day, but it seems like I've been doing research on Ethiopia for like a week.

I've definitely decided to accept the invitation. I still have mixed feelings, though, because Ethiopia is one of the least stable and safe countries in the Peace Corps. They keep pulling volunteers out because Ethiopia keeps getting into fights with the neighboring Eritrea. Plus, it's treatment of women is pretty poor, and a third of the population is Muslim.

It's a lot to think about, but after reading about the living conditions from current volunteers and realizing that because of budget constraints, there's no way I'd get a second invitation anyway, I decided that I should grab up this adventure and hope for the best. Luckily my mom can't google.

Something my dad may not realize: Ethiopia is still considered the poorest, dirtiest place on earth. At least by the people I know. The few times so far that I have announced my country, I've gotten looks saying, "Oh God, I'm so sorry," rather than "congratulations!" and people keep wincing or cringing instead of smiling.

Well anyway, I'm mostly excited and ready to sort of dive in! Current volunteers say to expect the worse and be pleasantly surprised, but I'm still going to hope to live in the highlands with moderate temperatures and at least a few hours a day/days a week of electricity.

Final Interview

The final interview went pretty much as I expected it to today. It took about 40 minutes in all, and my placement officer asked me questions about what I'd done to prepare for service, what I expected when I got there, etc. She also commented on something I mentioned in my interview last year in Chicago, which was crazy. She must have to go through so much information to make sure people are suitable!

In the end, she just said that it would take around 10 days for the invite to reach me. She said it would be for Africa in early June. I hope not too early, because I still want to go on vacation to Florida in June! But I'll leave whenever they want me to, of course.

The whole last five minutes of it, when she was talking about the invitation, I was just grinning and saying, "Uh huh, ok!"

I was really excited when I finished, and I sort of wanted someone to talk to about it, but Michelle wasn't answering her phone, so I texted Sara but she was in class. So I posted on the Future Volunteers Facebook group and they were all excited for me. That page has been such a help!

Going to Africa means I will be much less likely to have electricity and other amenities. I named this hardship as the thing I'm most worried about in my service, and my placement officer said that was normal, and that it would probably turn out to be the easiest thing to get used to.

I thought about leaving my computer and phone behind, and I actually felt a bubble of glee rise up in me! Then I thought about my ipod....

My ipod! I never thought about having to leave my ipod behind!

If I don't have electricity, it makes sense that I can't have things that have to charge. My camera, sure, I can just use it sparingly and charge it when I'm in the city. But my ipod! To not have music at my disposal...that's something I just hadn't considered before!

I just can't leave it behind. I won't. I'll hope for the best and charge it when I can...it has like 48 hours of battery life when it just plays music, so maybe if I use it sparingly I can get by with charging it once a month. Maybe it will just make listening to it all the sweeter.

I've thought about a lot of random things like this in the last few weeks, so maybe I'll start rambling about them while I wait for my invitation to arrive!