Padawan

It is safe to assume that most of you probably have a few questions of what, when, where, and how about my service in the Peace Corps. I will start addressing the what and the when.

Starting this leap year, during the month of June, I will start the beginning of my Peace Corps life. June 4th and 5th are my two short days of orientation in one of the following cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. At orientation, or what Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) call "staging," introductions, forms, and shots are all taken care of, and on the 5th, our destinations and formal assignments are announced! And for that reason, I will not be able to address the where until the day before I leave the country.

The 6th of June will be the day I take the long, aerial journey to Tanzania where I will have in-country training for three months. The 90 days are broken up into training of cross-cultural adaptation, personal health, safety and security, language, and of course, technical skills. This is where I address the how. During pre-service training, I will be living with a Tanzanian host family (for cultural and language integration) while I attend jam-packed seminars/classes to cover all the other components. Formal language classes are six days a week in small groups and community-based language training at the home of my host family. Additional technical training will come from my three week internship at a school near my Tanzanian family.

After pre-service training, the Padawan becomes the Jedi. (Well, not quite yet, but after training I will be prepared enough to become a full-fledged Secondary School Mathematics teacher!)