My Last Night in the US!

Bonjour! I just wanted to write a little something before I depart for Togo. I have spent the last two and a half days in Philadelphia for what the PC calls staging. It is a great city that has treated us well as we have prepared for our adventure. I arrived on Tuesday evening and right away met some great PC trainees. We couldn't stop chatting, asking questions like what did you pack, how are you feeling and how's your French? It is really reassuring to finally have someone who is experiencing the same things I am. Wednesday we got to do some exploring around the city and I got to see the famous L O V E sculpture as well as the Philly art museum made famous by the Rocky films (picture the stairs and the theme music).
I am officially part of the Peace Corps now! Training has been really great and the group I am going with is awesome. There are 31 people, 10 men and 21 women and there are 2 different programs, Girls Education and Empowerment, and Natural Resource Management. We have learned a lot and gotten to know each other well in short time.
I have enjoyed a great Philly cheese steak, ice cream and good coffee and tonight we had dinner at a great Italian restaurant. I will take my last warm shower and sleep in my last big comfortable bed tonight (or at lease try to sleep).
We leave Philly tomorrow morning and drive to New York. Our flight leaves at 11pm so it will be along day but I am excited to be able to sleep on the plane.
I am doing really well, staying surprisingly strong and really looking forward to what lays ahead. So keep me in your thoughts as I travel and I will write again when I get the first chance.

A Swahili proverb that we have learned in staging:
"We meet to part, and we part to meet."

Miss you all!

Welcome! Bienvenu!

Hello all and welcome to my Blog! As you know, I am setting off for 27 months of adventure as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the small West African county of Togo. I will be working as a Girls Education and Empowerment volunteer. My principal job will be to promote the education of girls so that they can acquire the capacity to participate more effectively in the process of developing themselves and their communities. I couldn't have asked for a better assignment! I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with young girls and women.
My first hurtle will be the language. The official language of Togo is French and there are many indigenous African languages that I will encounter in village life. I look forward to jumping head first back into French and I am hoping that the 18 credits I took in college will help out. I know there will be many funny communications stories to share so stay tuned for those.

Here is a synopsis of the next few weeks:
I leave for Philadelphia tomorrow, the 18th and I am there for three days of orientation. I will get to meet the rest of the training group going to Togo with me. We will be briefed on safety and security and receive our final vaccinations as well as begin taking our antimalaria drugs. Yikes!
We depart for Togo the night of the 21st and arrive the evening of the 22nd in Lome, the capital city. I will get to meet the Peace Corps director, staff and current volunteers upon arrival. I am so anxious to get there and meet everyone and see where I will be living for the next two years.
I will be in an intense 3 month training program in a village near the capital where I will live with a host family and prefect my language, cultural and technical training. Then, if all goes according to plan, I will be sworn in as a volunteer on December 6th and set out to post where I will begin my work.

There will be lots of stories to share along the way and I am so excited!
This site will serve as my main form of communication while I am abroad in addition to e-mail and snail mail. Please feel free to leave a comment on my posts and if you have more to say, just send me an e-mail. I am not sure what my Internet access will be like but updating this site will be a priority so I can have one central location for all my news, information and stories.

Thank you all so very much for all the love and support! It means the world to me. Keep me in your thoughts and don't forget to write!
Au revoir! for now...