Peace Corps had to evacuate Mali a few weeks ago... my thoughts go out to all the volunteers who had to leave in the middle of service.

What about my future you may ask? Read my new title and you may find a clue.... I am Ghana go to a new Country..... Did you guess it?!  

Akwaaba (welcome)  to my latest blog design! The past few weeks have continued to be interesting with a fast paced scramble to relocate MI students. A few other Michigan tech engineers and I jumped on the Ghana bus for a departure on June 4th... Sadly I will not meet many "team Mali" members, we were all split up. Luckily I quickly found the Gha Gha for Ghana facebook group and started connecting with my new training group of TEACHERS.

Yes yours truly is now going to be teaching Math and Science to Junior High students. Although I will still be a "wat/san engineer" I am going to be located at a rural school and teaching. Yes, this was a bit short notice, but I was planning on teaching while in PC anyways, just not as formally as a math teacher.

So I did the whole invite/visa/resume/paperwork/blue folder/country desk for the second time, which I guess is neat because usually you only get the one long awaited invite and I got two! Now I am mentally preparing myself for Ghana. So much for the long hours I spent practicing French for Mali, but on the bright side Ghana has given me a lot to look forward to.

So here is how it goes down:

June 4th- head to Philly or DC, meet my fellow volunteers, talk about how scared we are (I am not scared now but I am sure the day before I fly into the next 27 months of my life my stomach might turn a bit), get poked with more needles (thank you  PC for helping me overcome my fear by sticking me with so many this year), paperwork, staging things, and we are off!

In the Capitol we will have a welcome ceremony, meet all the staff, and get ready to go to training among many other things.

Then it is off to training where I will stay with a host family and meet the rest of the group daily to do safety, language, cultural, education, and pretty much everything to survive in Ghana training (including dancing and testing myself for malaria! more needles!). I believe as an educator I will find out three weeks after we start training where my village is so I can focus on the local language (we all learn Twi and other less common languages depending were we are placed)! But it will not be until August that I move there.... I really have no idea how it will work being a hybrid teacher/engineer, luckily there are some other guys in my group doing their thesis too so we are all in the same boat.

Then hopefully I will become an official PCV! A fun ceremony and we are sent off to our new homes. I will then update everyone with a new address and begin teaching and tons of other activities.

THINGS I WANT TO DO:

we have lots of free time

my thesis of course-- that depends on what my community or school needs most 

Sustainable mini farming

rainwater harvesting

drilling to ground water and extracting it, water storage, water education...I just love water

HIV/AIDS education

find bikes get them to people who need them and teach proper maintenance

teach late night classes for women who have to work all day

find out what my school needs and write grants/raise funding to get proper supplies to students

My  friend Danielle teaches math in Tulsa to Junior highers so I am grateful that I have her to answer questions I am sure I will have, as well as give me creative ideas and tips on teaching. I am hoping we can connect our students through pictures, letters, and videos for cross-cultural education as well. 

There are just so many opportunities and projects, I cannot wait to see what I will be able to do for my community. I know in PC results can be slow and sometimes I will feel like I am not doing any good but I know after my two years is up I will have no regrets.

Other facts you may find interesting:

I am not supposed to leave my site the first and last 3 months so visitors are VERY VERY welcome between November 2012 and  June 2014! 

Ghana is Tropical in the South and less in the North, the rainy season is April through September. I could be placed anywhere so the climate and diet can very a lot depending where my village is. I am hoping to stay Paleo. It will be hard during training but once I start living on my own it will be very easy to cook for myself with fresh produce from the market (sometimes 5+ miles away). I also have been reading about sustainable small scale farming and am hoping to experiment with Biointensive gardening methods. 

That is all I can think of right now! 39 days!!!

 Em

Coup d'État Poo d'État

Mali has had a very eventful week and no one is sure what will happen in the next few days. The Taureg army in the North is close to taking control of the territory "Azawad", ECOWAS will not stand for the coup and will start taking action Monday if the coup does not return the power to the people and reinstate the constitution. I have been reading the news and volunteer blogs almost obsessively since the rebel soldiers took over Bamako on the 21st. I have been absorbing all the information I can to somehow piece together what the future holds for Mali. This has not been very successful due to the constantly increasing variables.

Peace Corps volunteers sit with fingers crossed.

My head is racing with thoughts, emotions, and hypothesis. In a nut shell Je voudrais savoir si je sui aller a Mali...That is probably gramatically wrong and misspelled french but I am still very proud of how quickly I am teaching myself ( Michel Thomas french lessons during the drive to Tulsa really helped!). I am enjoying learning french but now I am scared to study Bambara more because what if I don't go to Mali? What if Peace Corps evacuates? I have mentally prepared myself for this trip after thinking I was going to South America for the longest time. I have gotten extremely excited about Mali, the people, culture, Africa, training, my mud house, my project, my new village, a possible diet of all non paleo foods (I am sure my first plate of rice and millet will make me cry a little on the inside as I recall all of Mark's daily apple research), and the list goes on and on. I see myself living in Mali for 27 months, I feel like I have fallen in love with the the hardships and rewards as a Mali Peace Corps volunteer and I have not even left yet.

I hope for peace in Mali, I hope the leaders will do what is best for the people, I hope that the current volunteers get to return to their projects and their Malian families, and I hope that I will Join them in June.

I already turned in all my government passport and visa info and have not heard anything back on that, I also have not received any travel info yet that is supposed to come a month before departure.

Right now I am working in Omaha and I got hired to do a bunch of large paintings that has helped pass the time. I am going to visit Tulsa again in a few weeks for some concerts and camping with friends. Hopefully I will have some answers soon about my Peace Corps service.

Cheers

They do not Speak Spanish in Africa

I finally got medically cleared a week ago after a loooong few months and unexpected/not so nice surprises. After over analyzing for a week and wondering if PC was going to call me now or in 3 months....I got an unexpected call from DC.

I found out that I am invited to serve in PC starting this May as Environmental and Water Resource Engineer in...... Africa! When I get my Invite package I will know the Country so I will let everyone know when I find out.

I thought because of my Spanish skills they would never send me outside Las Americas; so this was a very pleasant/shocking surprise.

So this is my blog by the way, welcome! I am not the best writer but if you care to stay updated and in touch please subscribe. So now that I know what my future holds I can start preparing for staging and do some more in depth research and reading on my Country. So what do you pack when when going to Africa for 2 years?


Peace