It's Almost That Time

After about a year of waiting, I have finally recieved and accepted an offer to serve in the Peace Corps. I will be working as a Rural Development Extensionist in Nicaragua beginning on the 12th of May. I will be going to Washington DC for a very brief (15 hours or so) orientation and then ship out to Nicaragua for 3 months of technical and language training. After that I will officially sworn in as a volunteer and be placed into a small agricultural community for two years. Here's a brief summary of the types of projects on which I'll be working from my Volunteer assignment book:

The people living in these rural areas in the departments of Estelí, Neueva Segovia, Matagalpa, Jinotega, León and Chinandega suffer from high levels of poverty caused in-part by environmental destruction, low crop productivity and inadequate use or access to local resources, appropriate technology, loans and education.

Limited family food production and a lack of income generating opportunities are common in the Nicaraguan countryside. Our project emphasizes involving families in gender appropriate activities related to food production, processing, added value generation, commercialization, organization and youth life skills development.

In the above mentioned working area, Volunteer service involves working soulder to shoulder and coordinating with the local community committees, and individuals, to develop activities and projects to bring sustainable development and improve their quality of living.

Hopefully the training will give me the skills to accomplish some of these rather intimidating goals.

I have started this blog as a way to keep in touch with everyone back home (your comments are more than welcome) and because nothing has helped me prepare to leave more than the blogs of those already serving in my position. Hopefully you'll find what I write here helpful or interesting in some way.

Now I'm off to figure out how to bring a banjo as carry on luggage..........