Tuesday, January 27, 2015

The first few days

I've officially been in Vanuatu for a few days, and all I'm going to say right now is that I live in a beautiful place. I'm sure plenty more pictures will be forthcoming soon, but here's a little taste.
The beach by our training location at sunset

A water bottle full of kava

The preparation for drinking kava for the first time

The grounds where we're staying for training

Our training housing

G27 arriving at the airport


This is a pretty cool place!

Friday, January 23, 2015

And so it begins...

The fact that I've been sitting in front of this blank screen for at least an hour goes to show the difficulty I've been having articulating how I feel about leaving. There's simultaneously so much to talk about, and no words to say it. With that in mind, I'm going to try to stay with facts, because otherwise this post will end up being some kind of weird inner monologue that makes very little sense (hopefully it doesn't end up that way anyways).

I'll be spending the next two years in Vanuatu, here:
It's a small nation in the south pacific consisting of 83 islands, (about 65 of which are inhabited) and a population of 266, 937. I've been assigned to work with the Penama Provincial Education Office, and that's as far as the official word goes as to where I'll be and what I'll be doing. Unofficially, looks like I'll be on Ambae island, helping set up computer labs in schools. I can't wait to get going and really figure out what I'll be doing, and how to go about doing it!

Since finding out in April that I would officially be leaving for Peace Corps, I feel like I've just been killing time. Fortunately, I was able to kill time in the best ways possible! 
Finishing out one last summer with SSP:
Being able to reconnect with old friends, and meet some awesome new ones in Eugene this fall:
Spending time with family (taken with my dad's new selfie stick, of course):
And enjoying a wonderful few days here in LA:

Thank you to everyone who made the last four months great!

Today I meet my fellow Peace Corps Vanuatu G27 volunteers, and tomorrow we leave the US for the first of 27 months. It's hard to wrap my head around two years of being gone. I'm excited, but oh so nervous.

See you all on the other side!