Taking Leave and Getting Ready

I knew I would be stressed out about leaving, but I never realized quite how much. Preparing to leave for two years requires a lot of time and effort and preparation and I feel like I have too much to do and too little time to do it. I know I'll get most of it done, but things definitely feel a little overwhelming.

In addition, saying goodbye to so many people is beginning to add up, and there's still so many more goodbyes to be said over the next few days. And the hardest ones to say are yet to come. In 5 days I'll be saying goodbye to my family and my closest friends, and to my farm. Thinking of not being here after having been here the last 4 years is kinda scary. I know I'm doing what I need to do for me, but it's still hard to leave everything and everyone behind, and know that while I'm away and changing, things will be changing here as well. That's always one of the hardest things to remember when you're away from home. That life keeps moving forward everywhere for everyone. It doesn't just stop because you're gone.

This entry is starting to sound very depressing, and that's not all that I'm feeling. I'm very excited about where I'm going and what I'm going to be learning and doing. I'm looking forward tremendously to meeting my group, meeting my host family, and starting training. I can't wait to see what the Dominican Republic is really like, what being a Peace Corps Trainee is like, and what the next two years will bring for me.

All right, back to my list of things to do before I go!

Two Weeks Left!

Time flies!! I still find it hard to believe that I will be flying out for staging for the Peace Corps in two weeks and I will be in the Dominican Republic on the 5th of March. I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm really going to miss everyone here, and I'm looking forward to all the people and experiences that I will have there. I still feel like I have a million things to get done before I go and not enough time to do it, but I'm sure everything will work out one way or the other. 

So I wanted to provide a little background information about where I'll be and what I may be doing. Of course, I don't really know exactly what it will be like until I'm there but I have a general overview that I'm passing on to you. So here it is:

From the Peace Corps Dominican Republic Website

dominican.peacecorps.gov/projects-cenvd.php

Community Environmental Development

Project Goals:

The Community Environmental Development Project works to increase the knowledge, skills, experience, and attitudes of community members, promoters, educators, park personnel, youth, and women's groups to adopt appropriate behaviors in their interaction with the environment and for the implementation of community projects and actions for sustainable development and protection of the natural environment.

Project Activities:

Community rural-based tourism/ecotourism.

Brigada Verde youth environmental clubs to promote leadership development centered around environmental community actions.

Home and community organic gardening promotion.

Renewable energy and energy conservation (improved cooking stoves).

I'll add more later as I know more!!