Drumroll Please.....

Introducing the new and improved BLOG!!
This is where you will find exciting tales and perhaps somber stories of my adventures as a Peace Corps volunteer to Mozambique! Not sure how often I will have the opportunity to post, but when I do, I will do my best to bring you up to speed and put up some pix too.

Ok, here's the dealio: I leave in oh, roughly 30 hours and this is what my life will look like for the next few days/weeks/months:

I depart from Michigan VERY early on Tues. morning 9/29/09 for Philadelphia, PA.
There I will meet up with about 61 of my fellow PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) for our "staging" event. This basically involves turning in paper work and a big, long meeting. After that, I plan to run the Rocky stairs, soak in the hotel's hot tub and then lie down as flat and long and stretched out as humanly possible, as I will not get to do so again for many, many, many hours!!

Cursedly, we must load the buses for JFK airport (in NYC) at 3:00AM!! Not sure why, but that's what the paperwork says. We depart from JFK around 11A on South African Airways, which I hear is nice, meaning personal entertainment units at the seats.

After the long, arduous 15 hour flight to Jburg, SA (Johannesburg, South Africa) we lay over and switch planes to continue the last leg of our journey into Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.

Upon arrival on Oct. 1st at approx 3pm Moz. time, we are greeted by PC (Peace Corps) staff and then taken to a hotel in Maputo for our orientation. Thurs thru Sat. we have meetings, briefings by State Department officials, immunizations and language sessions.

On Sunday, we depart for Namaacha, a city about 1.5 hrs West of Maputo, where we will begin our 10 wk intensive training. We will be placed with Mozambican host families during this period in order to add to our language and cultural immersion. Our days in Namaacha will be spent in class learning language, cultural and technical skills for our various positions and our weekends on homework, often involving our host family and cultural elements. We will also have language tutoring in the afternoons. Needless to say, we will be busy!

Upon successful completion of our training and demonstrated language proficiency at a certain level, we will be sworn in as Peace Corps VOLUNTEERS (PCVs) on December 11th.

At that point, we will move to our long-term site locations, where will we serve for 2 years. Site placement occurs towards the end of training.

SUMMARY
Tues. Sept 29, 2009: Depart MI for Staging in Philly
Weds. Sept. 30, 2009: Depart for Mozambique from JFK thru Jburg
Thurs. Oct. 1, 2009: Arrive Maputo
Oct. 1-3, 2009: Orientation in Maputo
Sun. Oct. 4, 2009: Travel to Namaacha to begin training and homestays
Oct. 5-Dec. 10, 2009: Training
December 11, 2009: Swearing in Ceremony
December 14, 2009: Move to permanent site location-TBD

OK, well that is probably way more info than most of you care to know, but since I hadn't posted in months, thought that I should do a thorough update. I promise not all of my posts will be this long-winded. Maybe most..lol

Anyway, my address, for the 1st 10 weeks at least, is listed there to side. Please write, but note that it may take a very long time for me to receive your mail and even longer for you to receive post back from me.

Well, "Boa Noite" (good night) for now. I am off to reback my bag for the 3rd time, as it is still overweight!

TCHAU!