Invitation

It's official, I'm going into the Peace Corps. I started my application over a year ago, interviewed in February, had my intense physical in April, and was all invited to Morocco in August. Then, me being who I am, I dislocated my shoulder just after and had to push back my trip while I recovered. Now I'm officially healthy and ready to go. I leave on June 25th for Mauritania. Mauritania is in the north west of Africa, bordered on the north by Western Sahara, south by Senegal, east by Mali, and north east by Algeria. The primary language of Mauritania is Arabic and the nation is 100% Muslim.

The Peace Corps is a 27 month commitment. The first three months in country will be spent in a cultural and language immersion. Then, I will receive my site location where I will spend the next two years. During training, I will be staying with a host family and spending time with other volunteers as we learn about safety and what is expected of us. I already know that I am going to have to change the way I dress. Women in Mauritania wear ankle length skirts and blouses or dresses. Not exactly me. It's all part of the adventure. My project is Girls Empowerment and Education. In other words, I will be trying to find a way for girls to continue their education after the sixth year. Also, I will be helping with community awareness to the importance and benefit of having girls educated as well as the boys.

I'm really excited! I can't believe it's finally happening. It's also a little scary going to a place I know so little about for so long. I guess I'm going to be spending the next four months doing as much reading about Mauritania as possible. I'm also going to try to start learning Arabic. I have a feeling Arabic is going to be a tough language to learn. They also want us to have at least an intermediate level of French. That I'm not too worried about since I took French in high school and some in college. I think it will come back to me pretty quickly, at least I hope.

I will try to update this blog as much as possible, letting you all know how it's going. Once I get into country I don't know what my internet access will be like but I'll do my best. As I learn more about what I'm doing I will keep you updated.