I just got off the phone from my
first-ever conference call! Yes, I am oddly excited by that. I was ushered into this stage of adulthood by my
future trainers in Kampala, Uganda who very kindly answered the frantic last-minute questions of 40-some volunteers. Uganda is where I and my husband, Kris, will be serving
for the next 27 months as teacher trainers in the Peace Corps. I will be
serving as part of the Master’s International Program at St. Michael’s College,
which means that after three semesters in Vermont, a little over two years in
the Peace Corps, and a rather lengthy capstone paper, I will receive my
Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language.
The next step in that program, my
Peace Corps experience, is growing more real as we move out of our apartment,
sell our stuff, buy what feels like even more stuff, and start saying goodbye to
loved ones. But it still doesn't feel
that real, especially when the past year of our lives has been
consumed by applications, interviews, essays, doctor’s appointments, and
paperwork leading up to one specific, now bordering on epic, date – November 11th.
The day we begin a move of 11,382 miles.
Kris and I have been trying our best to have as few expectations and preconceived notions about our experience as we can, but it's hard to stop dreaming about it. We have also been informed by the Peace Corps, gently and kindly, that 90% of what we think we know about Uganda and our experience there will be wrong. So despite that, just for fun, let
me throw my hopes, goals, and expectations for our time in the Peace Corps out
there so that two-years-in-the-future me can have a good laugh when she rereads
this.
·
Keep up with this blog.
·
Stay in shape.
·
Make a difference. There are specific
differences that I want to make, especially in the field of education, but really,
I will probably take any positive difference.
·
Become proficient in the language of the area
that Kris and I will be living in.
·
Become proficient in the culture of the area
that Kris and I will be living in.
·
Help promote cross-cultural awareness both in
Uganda and in the U.S.
·
Promote literacy among the boys and girls of Uganda.
·
Stay in touch with my friends and family.
·
Be able to better identify with and educate my
future English Language Learners (ELLs).
·
Make good friends, possibly even life-long
friends, both with fellow volunteers and locals.
·
Write a supremely awesome capstone.
·
Become good at haggling.
·
Learn and grow as an educator.
·
Learn and grow as a person.
·
Integrate successfully into my community and
have it really feel like home.
·
Have our marriage grow and deepen.
·
Use the language we learn as “code” between Kris
and me whenever we don’t want people to know what we are saying once we get
back to the States.
·
Grow my own garden.
·
Travel a lot.
·
Have adventures.
·
Oh yeah, and getting a dog would be cool.
Most of all, I want us to complete
our entire service and of course, fulfill the three fundamental goals of the Peace Corps:
- Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
- Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
- Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
Here we go!
