Okay, I'm Alive...

Alright, so I'm alive! I'm finally done with training and am officially a Peace Corps volunteer. I'll have to back track my adventures another post, but I can sum up my experience, by just telling you, "it's been an amazing 3 months." I know that doesn't give you folks back home much to work with, but I want to break the silence and start writing again, but catch up just isn't my game this time around.

Where am I now???

I now call home, the island of Vava'u. I'm living in Talau, which is the residential area of Neiafu (the main city in Vava'u).









Yeah, that's the view only about 20 meters from my house... Peace Corps was such a good idea!

What am I going to be doing?

Well, you might already know that I came here to teach English and to work on environmental education. I now know more specifically that I'll be working at the Vava'u side school, which is a charter school that is taught in all English, as opposed to having English classes part of the day. There are also some great opportunities to help out with the recycling initiative here in Vava'u. I'm also interested in working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which will give me an opportunity to work with humpback whales. The project I am thinking about most is to try and build a ropes course here in Vava'u. I could explain more about what a ropes course is or you could Google it??? Life here in Tonga will definitely be busy.

I'm gonna sign off for now and I promise I'll play the catch up game soon and get some pictures of all the amazing things I'm experiencing here in Tonga.

For now... Toki Sio!

James

One Week!!!

Okay, so I've officially been through my first week of Peace Corps. There are lots of pictures, but I can't upload them yet... missing a cord. I love Tonga, it's a beautiful country and the people are so nice. I've been eating a lot of good and new food. I ate octopus yesterday after church and it was pretty awesome. All of the other volunteers are really great and we've been getting on good; like old friends. Hopefully, once i have pictures I'll get on a computer and you can see how beautiful the country is and get idea of how big my volunteer group is. For now, I'll wish all my friends and family well and hope to here from anyone.

In the Airport...

Staging is done and group 73 Tonga is heading out to Tonga in less than an hour. Everyone is great and this has been an awesome two days; exceeded all my expectations. I miss everyone at home, but want you to know that I'm making a lot of new friends. I feel like I've know a lot of them for years. I'll start uploading pictures soon, gotta JET!

I'm Freaking Out Man...

No, not really! I'm actually just really anxious and really excited. I went by where I use to work yesterday and got to see a bunch of folks that I had the pleasure of working with right out of school. One of my good friends from AOL came and picked me up and took me to lunch(yeah, super nice), since I am now with out a vehicular.

My plans were to keep it pretty low key this weekend, my last weekend in the USA. Now, I'm packing the college weekend (Thursday-Sunday) with about as much as possible. Between last hangouts with all my friends and of course my parents, there will be no sleep this weekend (hey, it's a 5 1/2 hour flight to LA and about 12 hours from LA to Tonga). I'm not such a huge video game person, but living with my good friend Troy, I've put in some time on the Xbox 360 and PS3. So it was appropriate that last night, our last night hanging out for a long time, we played video games. Well... one video game; Halo 3. I got over to the house around 5 and we started playing around 530 and didn't finish until almost 2... when we beat the game. Crazy, I know and tired I am, but it was a fun last night hanging out.

I'll definitely post again before I leave, but everyone that I've been able to see and say goodbye to in the last 2 weeks, I'm so glad I was able to and for those I've missed... Tonga's only a small $1200+ flight away - think about it!

James

Bags are Packed!

After 9 months, I'm less than a week away. I fly out Monday morning at 830(EST) and and get in to LAX at 1030(PST). I'll catch a cab over to the hotel and check in and hangout until registration and staging begin.

The past week, I've been picking up some last minute items. My sandals are in the mail and should be here Thursday or Friday. I've looked at so many different recommendations and heard from current PCVs and and RPCVs on what to bring. I think I've come up with a pretty great packing list. I've packed my bags a few times, but the bags were always coming up overstuffed. Tonight, I went through and got rid of quite a bit and the bags are nicely packed, comfortable to move and under weight; 74 lbs.

Here's the list:
Clothing

Shirts
T-Shirts - 10
Long Sleeve T-Shirt - 1
Polos - 4
Short Sleeve Button Shirt - 4
Long Sleeve Button Shirt - 3
Sweatshirt - 2

Pants
Khakis - 2
Linen - 1
Jeans - 2
Shorts - 5
Boardshorts - 3

Underwear
Boxers - 5
Undershirts - 5
Socks - 2

Shoes
NB Running Shoes
Hiking Boots
Flip-Flops
Sandals

Miscellaneous
Ties - 3
Bandannas - 2
Caps - 3

Outerwear
Denali Fleece
North Face Jacket



Supplies

Kitchen
Spices
Sauces
Coffee Filters
Propel Water Packets
Measuring Cup/ Spoon Ring
Spatula
Chefs Knife
Paring Knife
serrated Knife
Can Opener
Veggie Peeler
Srirachas Hot Sauce
Tabasco
Wasabi Paste


Electronics
Digital Camera
Rechargeable Batteries
Battery Charger
iPod Classic
Logitech Portable iPod Speakers
Eagle Creek 240V to 120V Transformer - 1
Laptop
Mini Lamp
Clippers
Travel Alarm Clock

Miscellaneous
2-3 Person Tent
Water Bottles - 2
Multi-Tool
Swiss Army Knife
Rope
Bug Spray
Duct Tape
Bike Repair Kit
CatchPhrase
Uno
Cards - 2 Decks
Books
Mosquito Coils - 20


Gifts
Matchbox Cars - 6
Crayola Marker - 1

Well, that's everything I'm taking, hopefully it's enough. Once I've been there for a while I'll fill you in on whether I brought enough stuff. Stay tuned...

The Long Goodbye!

Two weeks and I'm on my way to LA and then Tonga. I've started in on the packing; trying to get an idea of what my stuff will weigh. I got my new Osprey pack in the mail yesterday and already have it loaded full, only slightly over 25lbs. I know the duffel will be heavier, but things are looking good to meet the 80lbs maximum for checked baggage.

The past week has been spent meeting up with friends for lunches, movies and drinks to say goodbyes. I was able to see some folks from AOL for lunch last week and that was great. On Friday, a night out with the boys, some bar hopping and lots of drinks and then Saturday another night of ridiculousness with one of my oldest friends and other folks. I think I have one or two more lunches, and I'm sure to have one last crazy night out with friends, but really trying to lay low not spend anymore money and certainly stay out of any trouble.

With every goodbye, comes the realization that in two years when I return, things will be different. I will be different, my friends and family will be different, everything around me... will be different. In two weeks, I will say goodbye to my life as I know and welcome a new path in my life. I certainly am sad to say goodbye to all of my friends, but know that in two weeks, it will not only be about goodbyes, but greetings. I'll be meeting a group of people that will have an incredible impact on my life. The truth of the situation is that in two weeks I will probably be meeting people that will be apart of the rest of my life. That's exciting, I'm excited! I look forward to the future, while spending as much of my remaining time here in Virginia, with friends and family treasuring my past.

Tonga Scenery

After all my searching on the internet, I came across these photos of Tonga, taken by Paul Todd of New Zealand. These are by far the best group of photos I've found of my new home and they really make me wish it was October already.

Paul was nice enough to let me post these photos on here, so please check out his website, he has so many other cool pictures. Visit Outside Images now!

If you want to see the pictures a little larger, view the slideshow here.

Malo e lelei! (Hello!)

Okay, so a huge developments since my last post. I am not going to be doing agriculture and environmental education, instead I will be teaching ESL and doing community development work. But wait, even bigger news; I'm not going to Africa. I got a call on Monday from a new placement officer with what he called "some really exciting news," I'm going to the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific. Hell yeah!



So anyways, if you want to check out some cool facts on the islands, have at it and follow the following links:

CIA - The World Factbook - Tonga
Tonga - Lonely Planet
Tonga - Wikipedia

I'm leaving October 2 October 1 for staging in LA and then after two days heading off to my new home. Needless to say, I'm stoked for 27 months of island life.

It's Official!

SO, it's official, they finally updated my status in their system. The last email I got from the Peace Corps was June 4, so this is exciting stuff kids. Okay, so now we play a new waiting game, 'The Invite...'

Medically Cleared, Kinda...

Okay, so on one of the follow up sheets I had for my medical, my doctor worded something wrong (according to the Peace Corps). I just have to have her say the same statement, but replace one word (ha!) and I'm medically cleared. I will post again, when it's official...

UPDATE: I sent in the fax, so I am cleared... finally. We'll see how long my invite takes.

Still No Invite!

It's been almost two months and I'm still not medically cleared and no invite. They had some issues with my medical clearance and I had some follow up tests. I went back to my doctor last week with what appear to be worksheets for her to justify that I am healthy. Hopefully when I get all my results back, I'll be cleared immediately and get an invite... immediately.

My severance pay from AOL, is officially gone! Oh well, I have had one amazing summer up to this point. I've been up to Boston, Colorado Springs, California, Vero Beach, and OBX . Last weekend I had two of my best friends wedding, which was awesome. We had a great weekend, the intense heat cooled for the actual wedding and Bonnie looked amazing. I think all of us groomsmen were more nervous than Paul, he was cool as could possibly be. I'll have to post pictures when I get them. It was also a great wedding because I was able to see so many people that I never get to see. One of these people was my favorite professor from Longwood; Dr. K. We talked for a while and she was excited about where I was in the process.

Okay, back to the Peace Corps... I don't know where I'm going. I had originally thought maybe Tanzania or Zambia (just guesses) and I was almost positive I was going to East Africa, but now I see that a lot of the Agriculture programs are in Francophone Africa. Not going to get my hopes up about anywhere and am going to try to stop thinking about it until I get my invite.

That's enough for today, I'll write again when my medicals done and sent in, maybe I'll have news of an invite???

My Paperwork is Done!

I've finally sent all of my paperwork to the Peace Corps office. I have had my medical paperwork done for about two weeks, but with all the traveling I've been doing, I started to slack about getting everything in; not good. I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly with the paperwork, because at this point I've spent a hell of a lot on Dr. appointments and would hate to half to spend more. I've read several takes on how long it takes to get medically cleared. Anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months (we're hoping for 6 weeks).
After 2 months of traveling around the country, visiting most of my friends and family, I'm back in Virginia for most of the summer. I need to get a job for the summer; not to make money, but to stop spending my severance money from AOL (if you don't know, I was laid off in March). I also need to start thinking about putting my Land Rover up for sale, but I don't want to get rid of it until at least August.

Well, this should serve as a good update to where I'm at right now. I probably won't post again until I get some news from the Peace Corps; so 6-16 weeks (hahaha).

Sub-Saharan Africa

So, it looks like I'm going to Africa. I got my nomination the day of my interview, after listing off all that was available I chose Sub-Saharan Africa. My work will be in agriculture and environmental education, which I'm stoked about. As it sits right now, I'll be leaving the states and heading to Africa in September. I've been dealing with a full spectrum of opinions on my latest life decision. Of course there is the opinion that what I'm doing is amazing, which somehow always feels slightly awkward. I've also received a lot of flak from people, that wonder what the hell I am thinking. This can also be awkward. It's the people in between, the unexpected opinions, that are fun, because their the ones that ask questions that I don't know the answers to. This gives me more stuff to look up, which is awesome.
In January, when I started the application process, the idea of volunteering was so surreal, but now; now that 5 months has passed, the little fits of anxiety have kicked in (which is a good thing, because it makes it more real). At this point, most of the people in my life know that I've applied which is exciting. It's fun to see my friends and family get just excited about it as me. I've joined several groups on a bunch of Social Networks and they've been great for getting the answers to all the questions I have, along with meeting others that are in the application process.

Peace Corps on Myspace
Peace Corps on Yahoo Groups