"Peace is not something you wish for;

it's something you make, something you do,
something you are, and something you give away."
-Robert Fulghum

21 June 2010

In Tanzania!!

Hey everyone! I've been in Tanzania since Wednesday night, and I'm having such a blast so far! A group of 40 Health and Environment volunteers are in a hostel for a week, and we've had a few crash course Swahili lessons to prepare us for living with our host families next week. This past weekend we went to Dar es Salaam, bought a few tangas (pieces of beautiful fabric about the size of a towel that the women wear here) and wandered around through the markets. There were so many people in such a small area! The place smelled very intensely, like spices and food, and so much more. I'm signing off for awhile though, because I'll be heading over to my host family and I don't believe they'll have electricity. If they do, I'll try to post, but otherwise, I'll have to let you all know how things go as soon as I get access to the internet. Talk to you soon!!

13 June 2010

Countdown: 6 hours

I leave for Training in 6 hours! I need to get to bed! I'm all packed, and have just a few last minute things to finish up. I've got my luggage down to 84 lbs altogether, though. Wohoo! (Weight limit was 80 lbs checked luggage and 11 lbs carry-on.) Alright... Wish me luck!!

01 June 2010

I'm leaving for the Peace Corps in 10 days! This has been a dream for so long that I'm just incredulous. It's finally happening - I'm really going to Africa!

Some thoughts...

Last Friday, I finished up work at Dana Farber. There are some truly amazing people working there that I'm going to miss. I highly recommend Dana Farber Cancer Institute both as a place of work, and as a place to receive treatment.

As far as packing goes, I've got pretty much everything I need at this point - a frying pan, some deodorant, tevas, and personal property insurance all lined up. I finished moving out of my apartment in Mission Hill the other day, and now there's just more paperwork to do, lots of reading, and some last minute cramming of Swahili words and phrases.

I'm so glad that I was able to make it to Jess's college graduation this past weekend (Congrats, Jess + David!) The ceremony went smoothly, then I spent some time out by Albany, NY where we ate some delicious BBQ and got lots of sun. Then today, I saw my brother Chris and his girlfriend off to the prom. My whole family went and made sure to thoroughly harass him by taking hundreds of pictures.

That about brings me up to now. I've been spending a lot of time trying to get my online life sorted out in preparation for my anticipated lack of internet. (Facebook, I don't trust you.) In all seriousness, though, between Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, Gmail, and the picture uploading website of your choice, our online social lives sure get complicated quickly.

Also, I'm simultaneously trying to sort through all this online information, and pack to live in a mud hut without running water or electricity. It's quite bizarre, I have to say.