In Love!!!

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Today in Washington D.C. we had staging... finally:) Staging covers a lot of ground. Safety and security, the history of Peace Corps, what will happen in the next few days and a reminder/ prod to all of us trainees ( Im a Peace Corps Trainee again) to carefully consider what we are getting into and decide if we want to make that commitment. We also talked about the Peace Corps mission/ goals and I fell in love again with the idea of being part of something bigger than myself. With working on something that's "sustainable."

And yes, several questions come to mind for me. Will I  be able to learn the language or will I spend 2 plus years talking like a 4 year old? Will I be able to deal with a squat latrine? Will I be able to build the meaningful and lasting relationships which will help me work with these people. When I start to worry, then I remember that I will be working with youth. I will get to play with them, teach them, pour into them, love them and hope I can help prepare them for the future. I GET TO WORK WITH KIDS." And when I remember this, the other worries get a lot smaller. I am blessed!!

My room mate in DC is Sarah from Montana who is also assigned to Youth Development (I have her permission to talk about her) She is excited and full of energy and energizes me. The entire team is like that (at least for now) and I cant wait to get to know them better in the upcoming months.

I had my last dinner in America....bittersweet... but more sweet then bitter. Tommorrow we check out of our rooms by 12, leave at 12:30 to go to Dulles and the journey begins.

Thanks everyone for the tremendous love and support you have all given to me. Please know that as much as I want to go, I already miss you and grieve the absence of your company for 2 years. (but not forever)

Next I post will be in Azerbaijan.
Merrill