I have been telling everyone who will listen that this is a
hard experience to put into words because, well, it is. There is no way for me
to accurately express what I am feeling here. I am the happiest I think I have
ever been here. I feel more at peace with my environment and myself than I have
since camp… 3 years ago. I know without a single doubt this is what I am
meant to be doing right now. The experiences I have had and the people I have
met (both PCTs and host country nationals) have been life changing. I don’t
think I will ever look at things the same way as I did when I came here. It’s
incredible to think of where all of us were when we came here. Some of us had
all these pre-conceived notions of what we would find and what we would
experience. Everything I ever
thought about Peace Corps, Africa, or Botswana was both completely wrong and
also completely right… Which I realize makes no sense whatsoever… But it’s late
and I can’t think of a better way to explain it right now.
In 3 days I am going to be able to say that I am officially
a Peace Corps Volunteer. In four days I will be dropped off at my site, in the
middle of a village I have never been in before. This is both a terrifying and
overwhelmingly exciting to think about. I have been anticipating this day
for almost two years now. It is incredible to think of how quickly this time
has passed and just how much I have learned. It’s hard to decompress after all
these long days in training. Lately, I have been trying to take long walks
around Serowe just to think.
Somewhere between silently facing off with roosters and goats and declining
marriage proposals, I have been able to really think and rationalize everything
I have experienced here and the truly heavy nature of the commitment I am about
to make.
I feel so
incredibly lucky to have had such an incredible experience in Serowe and to have
another two years of wonderful adventure to look forward to.
Info on my site:
I will be in Kasane working at the Red Cross. Specifically, I
will be working with youth programs and a bit on Malaria prevention. I
hope to be able to work with and partner with all the amazing NGOs in that area as
well. I signed up to take a Grassroots Soccer training session during IST so I
am really hoping to make that into a major project for the kids in my
community. We’ll see how well that
ideas sticks after community entry.
Oh, so I should probably mention that for the first two
months I am at site I will be doing what is called the community assessment.
What that basically means is that I will spend the next two months getting
integrated into my community. I will be spending a lot of time in the Red Cross
office to get a good grip on how things operate there but I will be spending
even more time in my community just getting to know the people I will be
serving and what their needs are. Peace Corps really tries to be a grassroots
organization and work with host country nationals to help them achieve the
things they want to achieve (while still meeting our goals). So a key part of
the process is really understanding the community and what the needs of that
community are. That is what I will be doing for the next two months.
I am more excited than I can express to be starting this
amazing journey in less than a week.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, let me
know and I will answer them! I may be without internet for the next two weeks
or so (I really have no idea what my internet situation will be) but I will get to you
eventually I promise.
I miss you all and hope things are going well stateside!
Erica
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