Advice, and Hardships

I think I am at the point where most everyone I know is aware that I am going to be leaving for Malawi in the next month.  This has led to the most amazing outpouring of advice I have ever seen.  I think this is mostly due to the fact that everyone I know has traveled outside of the US...I haven't.  That is not to say I never go anywhere.  I have seen most of the US, been all the way to the tip of the Florida Keys, and slept on more floors than I care to remember.  When I was a baby we drove from Alaska to Florida but since I do not have a stamp in a passport from that, I don't think it counts.

I am not claiming to be a traveling savant, and everyone knows this, so advice has been about the first things to do when you get somewhere, safety tips, how to keep luggage safe etc.

And it's not that I'm not grateful but the tips, however, are coming from people who hole up in resorts as soon as they touchdown in country.  Their tips are about traveling, not living.  Travelers want to live the same way they do now, just somewhere else.  Livers (not the organ), actually LIVE!

Example:

Traveler

"Oh Muffy you're back! We missed you at the club this past week. How ever did you find Mexico?"

"Why, Dash I turned South in Texas! Hahahaha! The worst thing happened though, the bar ran out of Pina Colada mix!"

"Muffy, surely you jest!"

Liver 

(once again, not the organ, although from the sound of it, were this Muffy's liver I'm pretty sure it would sue for separate custody) 

"Dude! You made it back!"

"No kidding, the doctors say it isn't Malaria and shouldn't be too life threatening after the next week, oh yeah, the cactus spines should work their way out in a year or so.  I'm just glad the camera is showing signs of life."

I guess what I am trying to say is pick your sources well, Muffy and Dash wouldn't know a hardship if it came up and slapped them on their cashmere clad butts.  But I can't say I'm a whole lot better.  Currently the top of my hardship scale has been trying to keep a certain little mouse from eating a hole in my backpack to get my trail mix.  My method was to wake up every 5 minutes when I heard him gnawing at my pack and make some vaguely human sounds threatening his existence and wave my hand in an attempt to ward him off.  Ultimately, I fell asleep and failed and the Marmots moved in, they took the entire bag...furry little vermin. No trail mix for a 7 day backpacking trip, yup, that is my hardship.  Oh well, at least I know enough to know that Muffy and Dash would not be sources for advice of any kind.  But this seems to be the only local advice I can dig up.  To make matters worse, I keep hearing about people taking longer to come out of culture shock than others.  

This could take a while............

  

Packing lists, among other disasters

Packing is a pain, packing for two years is like moving, and packing for two years for a foreign country has never been done before (not in this house anyway). Trying to figure out what to buy and whom to buy it from instills in me a sense of impending doom.  I only have 6 more weeks to get all of this hashed out! I do have some things, I will say that.  A couple journals, nalgenes, a money belt, hand crank flashlight and a few other odds and ends.  Mostly though, I think my pile is lacking.  The last time I packed a lot of stuff was for a 10 day backpacking trip, and I thought that was a challenge!

I still don't know how I am going to get it all over there either.  For those of you who don't know, packing is going to be like a bizzar game of tetris.  Everything has to fit in two checked bags and one carry on.  The two checked bags cannot have combined length, width, and depth of over 107" and cannot weigh over 80 lbs and no one bag can weight over 50 lbs.  To make matters worse...I was never very good at tetris. 

I have my 75L Venus backpack by REI which I am planning on bringing but otherwise I don't really know.  Possibly a duffle maybe a suitcase of some form.  I think I'm more worried about the weight requirement.  From past experiences electronics weigh a lot so I am going to try and bring them with me in my carry on bag.  Stuff like my netbook, ipod, solar charger, adapters etc are expensive and I don't want them to get crushed.  If I can keep more heavy stuff with me then I can fit more lightweight stuff in the other bags, I hope. 

I wish there was someone else in Colorado going to Malawi, I need someone to bounce ideas off of.     

Guess who is going to Africa!

Me! To Malawi specifically.  For some of you this is no shock, you have been in on things since the application started.  Some of you may not know, for that I am sorry, I'm sure I meant to tell you but something probably happened.  For those of you I don't know, welcome to my blog.

Back in December of 2009 I submitted an application to the U.S. Peace Corps.  Then entire year of 2010 was devoted to two things, graduating from college and Peace Corps.  I was impatient to graduate.  Imagine a road trip *cough cough mom cough* where you only get to pee at every other rest stop when you stop for gas...and you forgot to go on the last one.  That kind of impatient.  Waiting for Peace Corps, that was worse. 

For those of you who may have missed the whole process, you start out with an application that is roughly 90% questions about your current health state.  I can only assume this is to ensure you will not flop over in the dirt if you are more than 10 minutes from a Walgreens pharmacy or your doctors office.  You must also submit references, one from a work supervisor, a volunteer supervisor, and a friend you have known over 2 years (thank you Megan). 

Next comes the phone interview, mine was about a hour and a half but I think I asked as many questions as she did.  If you make it past the phone interview you then get fingerprinted and do a security check.  Make it past this and you get to level one up! Wooh! Now you get the medical packet.  

I think this would have been less of a pain if I wasn't 300 miles away from the only place my insurance works.  As a result I was poked, prodded, and drained of blood over Spring break and over other various three day weekends.  There is also a dental part and eye exam, that is right everyone, you get the full work up.  Then of course you will probably have to make a few trips back to the hospital to get things signed that weren't and finish other blood work and vaccinations.  

After the medical clearance you wait...and wait...and wait. But when things start to happen they really happen.  You interview with a placement officer, send transcripts and talk with other people about what program is really right and why you can't go to a tropical island (sorry Catie).  You are waiting on pins and needles for something, anything, that says where you are going.  Then over the course of one final phone call you are told congratulations, you are accepted, now wait for the packet that tells you where.

As my roommates can attest, I was more than a little impatient.  I don't think I checked the mail that often since I thought Santa would write back.  But it did come, on the 10th of December, earlier than I thought it would.  And the country is Malawi!  Where is Malawi you ask, simple, South East-ish Africa. It is a long skinny country right next to Lake Malawi.  

What am I doing there, well the simple answer is that I will either be a Community Forestry or Community Parks Extension volunteer.  Right now that is as specific as it gets.  I should know more once I get there.    

So sit tight sports fans.  We are entering the final 6 weeks prior to departure.  There is a lot to buy, pack, learn, and stress about before February 24th and it has only just begun.