It's just the beginning..

Well, I'm off to the airport. Philadelphia by noon for orientation and then the long trek to Rwanda, arriving by Thursday night! I remarkably was able to finish packing and get a little sleep last night, and woke up this morning seriously at peace with my decision and this next step that I am taking. Next time I update you all I will hopefully be in Rwanda, and what a story that shall be. Take care and here I go!!!

One week till staging. 9 days till I land in Rwanda.

I can't believe how fast the past few weeks have gone by.

I had my last days at work, which were filled with goodbye happy hours, lunches, parties, laughs and a several tears. I was amazed with the warmth and generosity of my coworkers as they shared stories from their peace corps days, as well as some extremely useful (and often hilarious) advice and gifts. I know that I've left SCMS in extremely capable hands and I look forward to not only hearing about the amazing work they'll continue to do but also visiting our field office in Rwanda!

I also had to tearfully and stressfully say goodbye to my home for the last 8 years: Washington, DC. To anyone who has moved two days after close to 30 inches of snow have fallen, I know exactly how you feel now! Our ("our" being me and my wonderful friend and roommate Lucy) goodbye and birthday party was of course planned for Saturday, February 6th, after at least 26 inches of snow pummeled the nation's capitol, pretty much paralyzing the city and keeping out anyone who wasn't within the city limits. But the troopers that they are, so many of our friends were still able to trek out to celebrate with us, and I thank each and everyone of you for making that evening so memorable!

All I have to say is my father is a rockstar. He maneuvered his little Blazer all the way to DC and into the nightmare that was my neighborhood. We were able to pack up the car and get out of the city in close to 2 hours and made it back safely to Ohio last Monday, the 8th.

Since then, life has been full of pulling together everything I'll need to pack for Rwanda. This has been nothing short of a challenge. And I must say I'm doing remarkably well (though every few minutes I add something to my "to do" or "to buy" list). I'm hoping to practice packing tomorrow, so fingers crossed on that one!

My mom also went above and beyond (per usual) and threw a (what else) SAFARI themed goodbye party, for my family and friends here in Wooster. Despite being slightly embarassed at first, embracing the cliche-ness worked wonders, and I soon found myself decorating tables with cougar print fans and elephant and monkey shaped "duckies". The food was great (all my favorites I'll dearly miss), the company was fantastic, and well, I must admit this happened:


So, in a week I'll be at staging, overwhelmed and excited and anxious I'm sure. So for now I'm enjoying sleeping alot, hot showers, cold milk, my crazy family and friends, and all of the glorious snow that continues to fall each day.

Oh, and I did get my mailing address!! This should work for at least the first 3 months of training, but can also work for the duration of my service (though I may get another PO Box closer to where my site placement is, but more to come on that later on).

For letters:
Amy Studenic, Peace Corps Trainee
PO Box 5657
Kigali, Rwanda

Don't forget "Par Avion" or "Air Mail"

For packages:
Amy Studenic, PCV
US Peace Corps
PO Box 5657
Kigali, Rwanda

So, that's it for now. Stop reading this and go write me a letter :)

Until next time...

One month left until Staging...freak out in 3..2..1..

The one thing I've noticed ever since finding out my placement is that my life consists entirely of countdowns. Countdowns until my last day of work, the goodbye/birthday extravaganza, my last day in DC, my last day in Ohio, my last day in these United States. Always "this many" days/hours/minutes until "the end". Or is it "the beginning"? Of course, I've always counted down things. The months before christmas, the days until I see my favorites, the hours until post-work drinkies. But I feel like all these countdowns have ended with happy moments/reunions/drunken stumbles home. My countdowns since December, while counting down to what I'm sure will be the most happy, exciting and life changing experience I've ever had, are also counting down to sad and tearful goodbyes, anxiety, nervousness and an overwhelming sense of...overwhelmingness.

So, apologies for the countdowns, but they're going to keep coming. But know that I type/say every single one of them with the greatest mix of happiness/sadness, excitement/anxiousness, braveness/fear. This next month is going to fly by and I know in the blink of an eye I'm going to find myself on a hill in Rwanda, mouth gaping (and camera in hand), and not be able to do anything besides reminding myself to breathe.

Alright, enough of my mindless rambling, onto some exciting news!

My staging (2 day "orientation") will be in Philadelphia on February 23rd!! I'll be flying out of Cleveland that morning and quickly meeting the 30ish people I'll be spending the following 3 months with in pre-service training :) On the 24th we'll be on a bus to NYC and our flight departs JFK at 6:10pm, with a layover in Brussels, then onto Kigali, Rwanda arriving at 7:45pm on February 25th.

It's the little things like this that are making reality set in. I'm really going, I'm really doing this, I'm really fricken excited.

Look out soon for an email from me requesting your contact info, but if you don't want to wait, send it to me now!!

Until next time.

Pays des Mille Collines

December flashed by in a blur of traveling, family, friends, food and more fun than I could have ever hoped for. I loved finally being able to tell everyone where and when I'm going, and hearing their various replies (pretty sure I heard "I'll pray for you" the most though, hmmm). But it made me realize that I haven't really explained very much about where I'm going or what I'll be doing (or at least as much as I know). So here goes:

Rwanda, often known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, is in Central Africa, just south of the equator (luckily at a high elevation so its much cooler than many other equatorial countries) and bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Here's a map for those of you who are lost already..



It's slightly smaller than Massachusetts yet the population is estimated at around 10 million people. Just mull that one over for a bit. I keep hearing/reading/seeing photos about how utterly beautiful and green it is, and clean (it's actually outlawed plastic bags!) Just look at this beauty:



There are three official languages in Rwanda: French, English and Kindyarwanda (Swahili and some other dialects are also spoken). Pretty much everyone speaks Kinyarwanda and French mostly only among the educated. In 2008, Rwanda decided to switch the education system entirely from French to English (hence why many of the current Peace Corps volunteers are teaching English). So the majority of my language training will be in Kinyarwanda and from the looks of it so far, it's not going to be easy. But who doesn't love a challenge right?

Rwanda is known for its coffee, tea and of course, mountain gorillas! However, it's unfortunately also known for the devastating genocide that occurred in 1994, where it's estimated 800,000 lost their lives. I know that this history has permeated into all aspects of Rwandan culture and will be one of the most eye opening and difficult aspects of my service. But I also know all of the effort that has been made in the past 15 years to encourage unity, stability, government transparency, economic prosperity and equality. It's even the first country in the world to have a legislature with over 50% women members!

Peace Corps reopened it's program in Rwanda in January 2009, and I will be the third group of volunteers going back into country (and must say that ever since they reopened their program I'd been hoping to get placed there!). My program is Health, HIV/AIDS and Organizational Capacity Development, and the main purpose is to work with the Government and local/international NGOs to help improve access to and the efficiency of their prevention, treatment and care programs. This will end up taking a lot of different forms and will depend entirely on the site I'm placed at (which I won't know until the 2nd or 3rd month of training).

Ok, I hope that's enough of a "teaser" to get you to come and read more, as there will be so much more to come, folks. As of right now I'm awaiting my staging packet, researching what to pack, taking in as many books and movies on Rwanda as I can, and making wonderful memories with family and friends.

Until next time...

Wait, what, 76 days until I move to Rwanda?

So tomorrow I will be officially accepting my invitation to serve in Rwanda, and I'm a mixture of excitement, nervousness and anxiousness (emphasis on the excitement though!). Not surprisingly at all, everyone at work has already asked if I've made my excel spreadsheet of tasks to be done before I go; to them I say, you know me too well! I've been known to be a, how do I say this, major excel nerd(?) so it's only necessary that I continue this tradition. It may or may not have a timeline, with deadlines/deliverables. But the scariest part was when I did the quick math and realized I'll be leaving in 76 days. No, not 76 trombones, 76 days. Luckily at that moment I also reminded myself to breathe, so panic attacks and a fainting spell were avoided. Don't get me wrong, you all know how utterly happy I am that this is finally happening, but now that I see everything I have to get done in a couple short months, it will be a race to the finish. Starting with the great dentist search 2K9!! I was informed the one I was planning to go to can't do anymore free exams until February and now I have to scramble to find another (cheap!) one, so wish me luck on that. I'd really rather my savings go towards fun things (like swiss army knives/shortwave radios/tents/netbooks/solar chargers/duct tape..) than cleaning and x-raying my teeth.

I'll post more about Rwanda and the Peace Corps program there soon, promise!

Snow, christmas trees and RWANDA!!

Yesterday. It was only yesterday I woke up to my favorite thing in the world, SNOW! It was only yesterday my roommates and I got dressed in our christmas best (aka ugly holiday sweaters), put our pup, Charlotte, in her santa coat and picked out our christmas tree, walking down U street for 15 blocks caroling and lugging the tree on our shoulders. And it was only yesterday that I got my invitation to become a Peace Corps volunteer!!!! I stood on our front stoop, snow swirling above my head, my roommates grinning (and maybe a bit teary eyed) and taking photos of me as I opened the package. The first word I saw made me scream with excitement: RWANDA!!!!! All I could do for the next 5 minutes was scream and laugh and cry and say oh my god probably a dozen times. My parents got the first call and I couldn't help but remember the time my mother proclaimed the only place she didn't want me serving was Rwanda. As many of you know though, Rwanda has been pretty much my top choice since the program was reopened. I asked mom if she was sitting down, which of course she wasn't, but then it all came out like word vomit. Luckily my parents were excited and supportive (and probably nervous as hell, I just hope there weren't any tears after we hung up the phone) as they always have been my entire life.

So, I'm headed to RWANDA on February 22, 2010!! My program is Health, HIV/AIDS and Organizational Capacity Development (say that three times fast!). I'm excited and nervous beyond words and have a ton of reading to do the next couple of days before I can officially accept my nomination. Oh and do the math, I'll be leaving in 2 and a half months, aaaaahhhh!

Finally, on a corny note, I just want to say thank you to all of you, for your support and friendship and general amazingness. You've kept me sane the past two years going through this process and I'm so utterly thankful.

More to come soon, I'll keep you updated.

And the wait goes on

Good news first: I faxed in the last of my medical paperwork to Peace Corps today! I know, I know, you don't actually believe me. I'm like the girl who cried medical clearance. But this time, I think I mean it. Even though my nurse told me she technically cleared me, I hope this means I can get that coveted letter soon. You know, the one that says you've been medically cleared and will be contacted by a placement officer soon? Nevermind that I've technically already been contacted by a placement officer, but whatever, I crazily anticipate any non-junk real mail, particularly when it's stamped with that lovely peace corps logo.

Speaking of placement officers, this brings me to my bad news: It's been two weeks since I talked to the placement officer. And nada. Nothing. Silence. Sigh. At this point not knowing is worse than knowing that maybe I just wasn't right for the post leaving in February. I realize I have no right to complain considering I put peace corps on hold for the better part of a year, but now that things were moving quickly I was getting super excited. And nervous. And anxious. But now I'm just sitting here. Waiting...