There's No Place Like Home

So I am finally an official Peace Corps Volunteer!  I have moved into my new home and am very happy to report that all is well (although I miss my host family very much and plan on visiting them as often as I can).  My organization is great and will keep me very busy and my "house" is a small "four square" that will suit me just fine.  I am still figuring out how to "decorate" but am very pleased.  I have so much to learn...the new language will be the most important.  But, for now, here I am in beautiful South Africa.

Oh, and please use my new address (it's posted on the right)!  It's ready to accept lots of mail from you!

Changes are happening!

I am again at an internet store checking email and thought I would say hello (Thobela)!  Since my last quick post there are changes potentially happening with my site placement so until further notice please hold off on sending me letters, candy, pictures, coffee, cookies, books, art supplies (you get the picture that I want goodies!) until further notice.  There are a couple of changes in the works so I may or may not have the same name/address.  I will let you know soon (I know you hang on my every word).
This will be my last week at our training/host site with my small community of Peace Corps "family" and my wonderful host family (pictures to come soon) and I will officially be sworn in as a volunteer (of course if I pass the tests that we will be taking on Monday and Tuesday).  Then, I will be taken away to my new community where I will be officially on my own.  Scary but true.  I will start making a home for myself meeting my co-workers, family and community.  I will let everyone know where I will be staying shortly and look forward to having more frequent internet access (I hope).

Oh, for anyone who is getting ready or thinking about joining the Peace Corps...it's an amazing opportunity but nothing I or anyone else can tell you will prepare you for this journey.  You just have to take it. 

Avuxeni (hello)!

I am alive and send my love!  I am happily matched with MAMA MONICCA and sister (her granddaughter) TUMI.  They are so loving!  MAMA only speaks Sotho but TUMI speaks English (she's 17) and they are great.  The village is called Machipe.  I am being taught Xitsonga because after I am with my host family for 2 months I will be going to a community that speaks Xitsonga (I think it will be north of here).  Love, Wendy (LETHABO). [posted for Wendy by Christine Blackmore]

So close...but yet so far.

It feels like I'm getting closer.  A couple of shots and a 17+ hour plane ride.  We will be there in no time.  I am in Washington, DC, with my fellow volunteers.  It feels good.  We have all started talking about why we made this decision and done a bit of bonding about luggage.  I think it's going well.  I don't know that I have learned anything more about our South African post (mostly we just discussed our commitment to the Peace Corps and then the logistics about making our way to South Africa) but all in good time.  When we land and start our PST (that's pre-service training) it sounds like we start cramming for finals.

I am excited, nervous, scared...I can't sleep.  Just like a little kid on Christmas night.   

A Yoga Mat?

Here I go.  So I have packed, repacked, weighed and made the final decisions about what to take and leave.  Everyone has an opinion and I'm sure I will want things that I decided to leave.  But, I decided that a yoga mat was something that was important enough to bring on this journey (and it really didn't take up that much room)?  So, I'll let you know about all of my good (and bad decisions) when I get there.  You'll know when I start asking you to send me things.  Or not. 

I love you all and will miss you.

Seize a Banana.

"I don't want to come to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it.  I want to have lived the width of it as well." - Diane Ackerman

We all have dreams, hopes, aspirations - you know, stuff we want to do.  But most of us wait.  We wait until the perfect moment.  There is a part of us all that is waiting to take that trip, chance, or reach out to the people we love.  Everyone gets to decide how to spend their time.  But don't wait too long.

Which brings me to saying thank you and I love you to my wonderful Carnelian friends for spending time with me today...and, as always, making me laugh (and cry just a little).  And as we learned how to say together, "Seize a banana!" 

I didn't take these pictures.

But here are some pictures that were taken of our soon to be training site by a volunteer who was at our training site this week scooping things out (thank you ultra helpful volunteer for providing lots of great information)!  The only piece of information that wasn't so "cool" was the part about lots of mosquitoes.  Oh well.  Let the adventures almost begin.