And We're Off!

Along with my fellow 60 future Peace Corps Azerbaijan volunteers, I spent the past two days in Philadelphia doing general Peace Corps orientation and preparing for our next three months of training in Azerbaijan. It seems like a great group of people of all ages and from a variety of walks of life coming together for the common mission of development in Azerbaijan! Approximately 15 of us are Community Economic Development volunteers, there is a group specifically focusing on Youth Development projects and, of course, a large number will be teaching English. It has been such a relief to finally meet some of the people I will be working alongside, and I can already tell we are going to establish some amazing friendships over the next 27 months!

As I have visited with many of you over the past few months as I have prepared for this adventure, I have been unable to specify exactly what I might be doing in Azerbaijan and what my life there may be like. Unfortunately, I am still unable to answer many of those questions, but I can share with you what I know to expect of the next 3 months:

Tomorrow we will ride a bus to JFK Airport, from where we will depart for Frankfurt, Germany and unltimately Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan). After approximately 2 days of travel (fun!), we will arrive in Baku Tuesday evening and remain in Baku for Orientation Week at a local hotel. On Saturday, we will be taken to the communities where we will live during training and meet our host families. All 61 volunteers will be training in communities near the city of Sumgayit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumqayit) north of Baku, and we will be broken into "pods" of 5-6 volunteers per community. For 11 weeks, we will train in the language, culture and various aspects of our positions and are encouraged to spend a lot of time with our host families to better understand the culture and practice the language. On December 10th, we will graduate from training and be sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. At that point, we will be taken to our posts around the country and begin 2 years of service.

I know there are still a lot of unknowns, but that is as much as I know at the moment. I want to thank you again for your encouragement and support. I am very excited about this adventure and cannot wait to dig in and see what happens! At least for the next week, I will not have internet or phone access, but I promise to blog about my first experiences in-country as soon as I am able.

Finally, two great quotes about tackling scary circumstances:

"I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do." -- Georgia O'Keefe

"The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Shout Out to My Peops!

Just days before lift-off, I am feeling amazingly prepared for my upcoming journey. My bags are almost packed, I have said most of my "good-byes" and, regardless of what is done or undone, I head to Philadelphia Friday morning for a few days of orientation before flying to Azerbaijan early next week.



I want to say a quick thank you to my family and friends, who have gone out of their way to help me prepare both physically and emotionally over the past weeks. The outpouring of love I have received has been overwhelming and truly gives me a sense of peace about what I am about to do. It is through such support and encouragement -- people going out of their way to show they care -- that I am able to take this bold step.



Friends, I will do my best to keep blogging, so that you know how and what I am doing but, as you know, I have no way of knowing or promising that I will have frequent internet access. I will appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers for myself, my new community and my family here at home. I encourage you to send me emails and leave comments on my blog posts as a way to remind me of your support. When I have a more permanent address, I will disperse that for mail and care packages. ;) For more information on what to expect, visit the "Family & Friends" portion of the Peace Corps website at http://www.peacecorps.gov/. If you would like to get in touch with my parents for any reason, you may also post a comment to one of my blogs.

Getting Ready

I cannot believe how quickly time has flown since I received my Peace Corps invitation three weeks ago, but I must face the fact that I leave in about three weeks for a two-year journey almost impossible to prepare for. As you can imagine, I have so much to do in my time remaining ... there is paperwork for Peace Corps, bank accounts, legal matters, etc. that is necessary for close out my affairs here. Then there is shopping and packing to prepare for a variety of climates and seasons with a very limited restriction on how much I can bring and what I am allowed to wear. Also, there is mental preparation, such as reading through materials Peace Corps has sent, beginning to learn the language and culture, and saying good-bye to family and friends. Luckily, I have been working diligently for the past few weeks to get some of these things taken care of and hope to enjoy some downtown (a little, at least!) before I head out.

I took a quick trip to D.C. last weekend and had a wonderful time! It was so nice to have an opportunity to see the people I care about one last time and feel at peace leaving that part of my life. This weekend, I have two of my best friends from childhood in town (with their babies!), the next weekend I am going on a work retreat (my last official responsibility at work), and the weekend after that, my family (including my sister!) will be at a family reunion.

I've had the opportunity to begin to community with some people who have served as Peace Corps volunteers before, including one who served in Azerbaijan and still works there. It has been very helpful to hear their perspectives on what I should expect, what I should bring and what I should be sure to do in my last weeks here.

Overall, as I've said before, I am both excited and nervous about my adventure. I understand that it will be a challenging experience in many ways, but I look forward to growing in those areas and becoming a stronger, more well-rounded person because of it. Mostly, despite my anxiety, I feel blessed and joyful that I will be realizing one of my dreams and doing what I believe is God's will for my life in the process. I see this experience as a jumping-off point for a new chapter in my life, and it is time to take the plunge!