Tuesday 11 November 2008

Going Home Early

Unfortunately I will be ending my service here in the Peace Corps this week. I have made my decision and it is final. I know I have not been completely candid on this blog about all of my health issues since swearing in two months ago, so this will probably come as a surprise to most people who do not speak with me regularly. Like I have mentioned before, I have had severe problems with the overall function of my GI tract. But it is not the occasional bouts of diarrhea that has forced me to resign. The fact of the matter is that in the last two weeks I have completely lost my appetite and the food that I am eating is not being absorbed properly by my body. I have had chronic weakness, fatigue, and diarrhea for the better part of two months now and it has gotten progressively worse each week. My healthy weight is typically around 165 lbs, but today I am tipping the scales at 145lbs. This has become a serious cause for concern for the last time I was this skinny was about the 9th grade. I have always been able to overcome obstacles that have been thrown my way but this time I feel as though staying here will put my overall health and well-being in jeopardy. The medical unit has done all they could to help me figure out what is going on. All of my lab tests have shown up negative for parasites, bacteria, malaria, etc. My body may just not be able to handle the differences that African life brings, or I may have a serious medical concern that does not show up in lab tests here. Which ever situation it is, there is no choice for me but to return home.

So how do I feel about all this?
In all honesty this situation has been extremely difficult for me to go through. I really had no intentions of quitting the Peace Corps before my well-being became an issue. The Peace Corps has been an amazing experience for me that has opened my eyes to many different issues that I was previously oblivious to. It is sad to have to leave a place that has taught me so much about the world. I have been living in Togo for five months now and for most people in this world that would be too much time in Africa. For me, it wasn't enough.

My best friend from my village is named Ayooba. Unfortunately I had to rush and pack all of my things in a matter of one day so I was not able to speak with him face to face before I left (conveniently the network went down the day I was packing). But I will never forget the text message he sent to me today:
Mark I know god has sent you here for a reason. I am happy to have known you and one day I wish to meet you in America. Remember You must become a Muslim INSHALLAH

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Election

As everyone knows, last night was a turning point for our nation as Barack Obama succeeded in winning the Presidential Election. The Peace Corps Volunteers that were in Lome were invited to the US Embassy for an all night election results party. It was an incredible experience watching the results come in for we were among hundreds of high ranking Togolese Officials who were also invited to the event. The wave of emotion that hit me as he was officially declared the winner was unlike anything I have ever felt. I really can not recall another time in my life where I have been so proud to be an American.

The one thing that I have learned more than any other here serving in the Peace Corps is just how important developing positive international relations are with foreign countries. I believe the one thing that Obama brings to our country more than anything is a certain international respect that has been missing for the past eight years. Improving our image abroad is something that every Peace Corps volunteer strives for and was really the main objective layed out by John F Kennedy when he started the Program in the early 60s. Besides the grassroots style of helping third world countries develop over time, Peace Corps also succeeds in improving international relations within that given country. I wanted to stress that point in this post because Americans as a whole are very well liked and accepted here in Togo(much more so than citizens of other European countries) and The Peace Corps along with its philosophy for helping developing countries prosper is the main reason why.

I have spoken with people from all different countries and I cannot stress it enough just how much respect and admiration they have for Barack Obama. I am glad that the American people have put their trust in Obama and I am more honored than ever to serve our Government as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Monday 3 November 2008

Lome bound

After a rough couple of weeks I have finally summoned up enough energy and desire to go to Lome for a complete medical examination. I was having relapses of the same symptoms that I mentioned in previous posts during AIDS ride. It is a a difficult task for me to give presentations in French to mass audiences to begin with, but when you add weakness, fatigue, and diarrhea to the mix makes it pretty much impossible. So my frustrations here continue as I try and find out what exactly is going on. I'm not trying to think about it so much because it really is making me more and more stressed out with each passing day.
On a more upbeat note, my coming to Lome allows me to follow the presidential race more closely. I guess you wouldn't be surprised if I told you Barack Obama is a hero of sorts to the Togolese. I can't talk to more than five people without one of them asking if I have voted yet or who I think is going to win. All of the Togolese I speak to in my town can't get over the fact that I sent in my absentee ballot from Togo to the United States. They think its the greatest thing in the world that I am able to vote even though I am not in the States.

Friday 17 October 2008

Still Standing

The past two weeks at post have been quite encouraging for me. Overall my health has dramatically improved as if God read my blog and bestowed a little mercy upon me. The series of health related problems have gone away temporarily, and it has really allowed me to enjoy my life again. I am continuing to work at the hospital each week helping with the baby weighing sessions. Baby weighing is something I really looked forward to doing because the weight of the infant is a nutrition related problem which I spent the last five years of my life studying. In many cases, however, it is not an issue of nutrition at all. It is an issue of sanitation and infectious disease. In Africa children do not sleep in immaculate cribs away from dust, dirt, insects, etc. They are exposed to the harsh environment right away and mothers here give their children freedom to crawl pretty much anywhere they please. In the long run, the children build up immunity to many of the germs present over here. That is why a 23 year old Togolese man is not going to be wiped out for an entire month like I was when exposed to the bacteria in the food and water. The problem in exposing children to so many germs so quickly is the fact that they get sick at a very early age which has severe consequences on the development of that child. So basically baby weighing has been difficult because there is no advice you can really give mothers (as a nutritionist) to help an infant grow and develop at the correct pace. If a child is malnourished the mother in all cases I have heard proclaims that her child has been sick. Where nutrition plays an important role is when the child is introduced to other foods as well as breast milk. But I have noticed at the baby weighing sessions, the mothers tend to stop bringing their babies after a year or so, thinking that the critical time period for growth in development is over which is not correct. So why did I just ramble on about this issue? I think the issue of sanitation is not given enough attention when programs are developed to combat malnutrition in developing countries. I think one of the most important issues is the unavailability of running potable water. When infants are exposed to dirty well water they are going to get sick and when they get sick they are going to lose weight. The problem with sanitation work here is the fact that it is a very expensive and time consuming endeavour to try and bring running potable water to small villages in the middle of Africa. The overall sanitation of a community is something that is going to take a very long time to change and right now all I can really do is stress the importance of finding potable water and storing it away from dangerous pathogens. I’m also going to spare you my views on the overall cleanliness of my village in regards to garbage for in my opinion it is one of the dirtiest villages in all of Togo.

Random notes from the past two weeks

I bought a refrigerator which has significantly improved my overall quality of life. I forgot how refreshing cold beverages were.

I finally got around to buying a soccer ball, its frustrating getting schooled by 7 year olds but once I get back into shape and practice a bit I think ill be able to hold my own.

AIDS ride starts Monday and lasts all week. It will be interesting getting to see some of the more remote villages in country and how they react to 10 pale white Americans dressed the same.

Friday 3 October 2008

The difficulties of living in Africa

It has been about of a month now at my post and I have been overwhelmingly frustrated throughout most of it. The reason for my frustration is an ongoing illness that seems to baffle both the Peace Corps Medical Staff and myself. I have been chronically fatigued day in and day out with spontaneous sometimes week long bouts of diarrhea. Stomach issues are something that is to expected especially living in Africa but, whatever is causing this sense of fatigue and weakness should have been expelled by my immune system weeks ago. On days where my condition worsens I have been confined to my bed drinking Oral rehydration syrup with liter upon liter of water to stay hydrated. It is during this time when I feel utterly useless. Not being able to go out and integrate myself into the culture is severely hindering my Peace Corps experience up to this point. Because there are not many sustainable NGOs in my community, it is up to me to make connections and network with other local health agents or citizens living in close proximity to me. Having this myriad of symptoms plaguing my body has made this task impossible. Being sick also leads to other problems such as: spending more money on prepackaged foods at local boutiques, having other people cook for me, being too weak and tired to clean, increase in the electric bill because the fans are constantly running, etc. With time I can only hope that I will grow accustomed to my environment here in Africa and I must keep in mind that there is a reason why the Peace Corps lists "flexibility" as the most important attribute a volunteer should have.

Okay my whining and complaining is done for now. In other news, the holy month of Ramadan has finally ended and the Muslims (who represent 80% of my community) are not obliged to fast any longer. I have been very interested in the role that religion plays in the peoples lives here in Togo. Prior to me coming to my post I did not feel like the Islam of Africa was anything remotely close to that of Middle Eastern countries. But, I have been impressed with devotion that my friends have to their religion (studying Arabic in their free time, abstaining from alcohol, keeping a strict prayer schedule, etc) and my knowledge of Islam has definitely come in handy when trying to have a general conversation with people of the community.

My next month is definitely an important time for me here in Togo. AIDS ride which is a Peace Corps sponsored event where about 15 of us volunteers in the northern most region will cycle 40km each day from village to village doing HIV/AIDS lectures and theatre style skits. It will be a good time to gather information and discuss possible collaborations with other volunteers. It will also serve as a good time to improve my French and get to see the eastern side of the country which I have yet to see.

Saturday 13 September 2008

My new home

So it has been about 3 weeks since I have been on my own. I have a very interesting post to say the least. Especially now since it is Ramadan, 3/4 of the community is fasting throughout the day which makes me look even more like an outsider when I sit down at an empty restaurant during the day. Of all things; lack of food has been my biggest obstacle. It has been difficult especially in regards to finding cheap sources of protein. During training my host family would prepare soy based tofu that was an excellent and delicious source of protein. At my post, however, I simply cannot find it anywhere. The reason is because there is an abundance of beef and chicken in the north that satisfies the needs of the community. The problem for me is that in order to buy a chicken I need to use a half of a days pay, which I am simply not going to do. Beef on the other hand is adequate sometimes, but you never know which part of the cow you are getting. Kind of like a mild episode of fear factor without Joe Rogan telling you what you are eating. So one of my future projects will be to increase the amount of soy in the community for it is not only inexpensive; but also a complete protein that can be utilized to promote growth and development with children. Speaking of work right now I am helping the local hospital with their weekly baby weighing sessions. The goal is to identify babies who are underweight and provide the mothers with nutrition counseling. Because of language restrictions this can be a frustrating process but the Togolese who work at the hospital are very nice and help me out a lot. Once the dry season comes which should be soon I will be working with my counterpart in the community on a village saving and loans project in a small village outside of town. Ill have more information and details later on when we are going to implement it. Other projects that I will be working on eventually will include health and english clubs at the local primary school, HIV sensibilisations with at risk groups, and a garbage collection project and or sanitation improvements to the community. Basically I have a lot of brainstorming to do and hopefully I can implement a sustainable project for the community in the near future.

Sunday 24 August 2008

Last Blog Before Post

So the day is finally here. Tomorrow we will all be departing Lome for our various posts. Our time here in Lome has been relaxing. Training has been a stressful time for most, especially if you have been sick as much as I have. Being sick is something that you just need to deal with while living in Africa. It is nearly impossible to avoid it because there are severe sanitation problems throughout the country. Anyway I'm just going to put some notes down of random thoughts that are running through my head before I depart for post:

Togolese people do not follow the rules of "waiting lines", This is the one thing hat drives me nuts and it happens more in Lome than any other place. People will see you in line and then jump in front of you and the cashier does not call them out on it. -my number one pet peeve here

Living in Africa will definitely change your personal definition of poverty.

I'm going to miss our language teachers. Having them speak in a slow and deliberate manner has made me confident in speaking french, however, out in the real world not everyone can speak french like that.

I'm going to miss my host family and the surrounding families. My new compound has a much different feel. Since there are half as many children at my new site and no farm animals, life will be a lot less chaotic there.

I'm not looking forward to the dry season (feb-may) where temperatures reach well into the 100s each day and the power gets cut frequently. Also the surrounding landscape turns from green to an ugly brown. -will probably look a lot like kansas

For my first two months it will be crucial for me to study and practice my French with the community. I'm planning on getting a radio soon to help my French come along. Right now I have enough to survive out in the community but not work effectively with others.

Well that's it for right now. Training was a great experience but now comes the hard part: Living and working on my own for 2 years. Being in the most remote post(distance wise) in country definitely has its obstacles. Living in a larger more transit town will not provide me with the same level of emotional security as a small village would. I am not living in a place where I will be recognized by everyone. But this is the site I wanted and I am motivated to integrate myself in the community as best as possible.

A quote from my counterpart at my site when he was late addressing a crowd:

"In America you have that quote time is money.....but here in Africa time really isn't money"

Friday 22 August 2008

Swear-in

I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Swear-in was last night at the Country Director's house and the ceremony went very well. I will be in Lome until Monday before making my way all the way up country to my post. Right now my emotions are somewhat mixed about moving to post. I am excited to leave but at the same time I have to deal with the fact that I am not going to be seeing many Americans at all at my post. The Peace Corps in general do not send many volunteers to the way north of the country for reasons I don’t know but it is where I will be living. I wanted to live in the North because of the challenges that people face up there. It is a much more arid climate that does not produce fertile soil for good crop production. This is probably the main reason why the northern most region of the country has the highest rated of malnutrition. But these are issues that I will be looking into much more thoroughly after I have been at post for a bit. Being in Lome for the past couple of days has really made me realize just how different a small village is compared to a big city (especially Lome). In small villages you will get
noticed right away and you’re the main attraction, but in Lome you are just another face in the crowd. I am trying to spend as much time as I can walking around and interacting with the people of Lome as much as possible because I will realistically only be here a handful of times during my service.

Information about my post:

though my post is really far away from all the action in Lome, I still have access to pretty much anything I need. The only thing that I will have to travel for is internet, so you can plan on me updating this about every 2 weeks.

Friday 25 July 2008

Site visit

Week seven has arrived and it is one of the most anticipated weeks of training. Week seven is known as site visit where all the trainees get to live at their site for the duration of the week to get a feel for life after training. My site visit experience did not go as well as I would have hoped. I got some sort of food poisoning on Monday night and was pretty much confined to the bathroom and the bed for much of the week. I have been feeling better the past couple of days but my appetite has been curbed exponentially and I still feel pretty fatigued and run down. But even with being sick for most of the week I got a good feel for the village and the culture around me. My living situation is very nice comparatively speaking. I live in a compound with three other families away from the action of the main street. The volunteer that I am replacing really enjoyed the site and felt perfectly safe during her two years of service. I also have a really motivated counterpart in the community that is really excited to work on nutrition causeries and interventions with me. Speaking with him this week has also motivated me to put more time into my French and to really take the last moth of training seriously. It was also a nice surprise when I found out that my house was equipped with a bucket flush toilet rather than a latrine. Latrines really are not as bad as you might think, but being on one for most of the day when you are sick is a little much (especially at night with the cockroaches). So I am sorry to anyone who was hoping for "pooping in a hole" stories because I won’t have that experience, at least not at my compound.

From here I have one month of training left before Swear in. Swear in can be a hectic time for a lot of volunteers because everyone is down in Lomé and has to purchase most of their furniture and whatnot for their house. I’m kind of spoiled because my house is pretty much fully furnished and anything I need to for it I can get in my village which makes the whole transition from training to post a lot smoother.

Friday 18 July 2008

wow

ok finally i can update this thing...basically I have a lot to talk about but my time as always is limited and this french keyboard is extremely fruestrating. training has been going really well, I absolutely love my host famlily and the community in general. my french has been progressing quite nicely to my surprise. learning french in africa is definitly a challenge considering the fact that I hear the local language spoken more than I do the french. I have to tell my host sisters everyday to stop speaking ewe so i can understand at least part of what they are saying. I am actually more excited to get to post so i can JUST speak French. Here at training it is tough because we speak english during alot of our technical sessions so it acts as a crutch that i honestly would rather not have right now.

on another note i found out where i will be living for 2 years after training. but technically i dont think im allowed to post in on blogs for security reasons. But to give you a sense i am very very far from lomé. The distance issue is a factor and its the reason a lot of the other trainees didnt want this post, but for me it has everything i want. such as: bigger town, availability of food; high muslim population; lots of opportunities for work in nutrition and sanitation, and electrecity.

I have alot more to say but for right now i have to leave;, the peace corps really keeps you busy during training so untill next time.......

Tuesday 10 June 2008

lome

okay i have like 10 minutes to write this on a tiny laptop, sorry for the errors. Everything is going well so far. Togo is AMAZING. I absolutely love it here because the people have been so nice and the communities and culture is drastically different from anything I have ever experienced. We have 1 more day of orientation then i will be with my host family in a town an hour from lome. during this time i will not be able to get cell phone coverage so i will not be buying one until august. untill then i will try to make it to the internet cafe a bit even though that is quite expensive. I am really looking forward to being with my host family so I can constantly harass them with french questions. The Peace Corps has been incredible during our orientation process as well. They are well respected within the country and they have really given our training group alot of confidence going forward. In case you were wondering, I will be taking bucket showers and using a latrine as my toilet. yay for camp bill o wood all over again. hope everything is going well back in the states and to my dad, i will send you the financial aid
deferment papers whenever i can get to the post office.

random notes: food here is delicious, very healthy and I have not had 1 thing that I do not like as of yet.

most things here are WAY cheap, exp. 22 oz beer at a bar down the road is like the equivalent of 1 american dollar

lots of random chickens running in the street, one today was eating a frog whole

were getting our trek mountain bikes tomorrow when we go to our host families, which means I am definitly doing some journey of hope type rides through the country side

I am very pleased with how I packed. I feel like a have the perfect mix of clothes and electronics. by the way im using my roommates lap top right now and everything after this will be at internet cafes.

DO NOt send packages DHL because it will cost me a fortune to pick them up

Goodbye for now

Thursday 5 June 2008

Here I come Togo!

Right now I just got done my last orientation session in Philadelphia and we depart for Togo tomorrow morning. Orientation was great because it really cleared up a lot of issues and questions that we as future volunteers had. Our training class for the CHAP(community health and HIV prevention) program consists of 16 members. I knew from the people I met on the Internet prior to staging that the Peace Corps were looking for very qualified volunteers. I can say with great certainty that this training class is no different. We all come from a wide range of backgrounds and educations including several volunteers with their PHD's and a ton of other work experience. The one thing that was interesting to me was out of the 16 health volunteers I didn't hear one person mention that they were a Public Health major in college. Most come from backgrounds of communication, science, or other discipline( like nutrition) that is related to health in some way. Anyway I guess the bottom line is that the people I have met thus far are very dedicated and easy to get along with. It makes things a lot easier already since we have already gotten to know each other well as a group.

Tomorrow we are flying to Paris then waiting 6 or so hours then heading to Lome. We will be training about an hour north of Lome and the first 3 days of training we will be living with in a hostel before we get assigned host families. I am looking forward to meeting my host family. When I think of a host family I can't help but think back to when I first met Mohammad and Khalid and remembering the culture shock that they were being put through. I remember having to correct their English over and over again but in the end having them as friends was well worth the time. For me it will be the same deal except in French. The host families are trained by the Peace Corps so there is no worry that they will show frustration that easily.

Overall I am very excited to start my training in the Peace Corps. I started applying to join the Peace Corps in September and now tomorrow I will finally step foot in Africa.

From this point on I am not really sure how much time I will have with this blog. I know training for the next three months will be incredibly stressful. I cannot say with great certainty that I will be able to or want to update this especially if I am speaking in French all day, but I will definitely do what I can to give you some sort of perspective of how training is going. Before I go I want to thank all my friends and family for being supportive of my decision. I know it was a shock to most but it is a once ina lifetime experience to grow as a person both personally and professionally.

......and please make sure Obama takes the White House this fall, I do not want to explain to the togolese people the ideologies of McCain.

Tuesday 3 June 2008

Goodbye United States

Wow, time has really moved fast here in the past two weeks. Between my sparse rosetta stone usage and the multiple family functions that I have been to recently I have not had a lot of alone time until now to even think about what I am getting myself into. It is now starting to finally sink in that I will not be back to the US for over a year. This should be a scary thought to many, however, I am not nervous about it even on the eve of my departure. How can this be? I feel like I have changed significantly over the past two years both personally and professionally. The challenges that the Peace Corps will present to me are not something that I am scared of. I look at it as the ultimate opportunity to learn more about people that are culturally much different than myself. This difference in culture is something that I am looking to embrace and I will do whatever it takes in order to be an asset to my work. I am of course going to miss so many people here in the United States but I will be back sometime next year when I finally decide to take one of my vacation breaks. I have several goals that I wish to accomplish in the Peace Corps, but for the first three months it is best that I just take in as much as I possibly can without putting to much stress on myself. I will be in Philadelphia until Friday engaging in multiple orientation sessions and vaccination field trips (yay). On friday we will depart for Paris and then from there we will fly to Lome. I have decided not to bring my computer. I think it will just be a distraction because there is little chance that my house will have electrictity and no chance that it will have wireless internet service. My cell phone broke so I am just going to wait until I get to Togo to buy a new one. The only electronics I am bringing are Ipods and alarm clocks. I know the next two years will be tough, but I enjoy adapting to difficult situations that I know will make me a better person in the long run.... and if I can cycle 80 miles a day across the USA, I have a good feeling I can make in Togo.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

So much to do in so little time

Well I officially accepted my invitiation to join the Peace Corps leaving June 4th. The whole process of joining the Peace Corps was a slow and tiresome adventure that really tested my patience. It was an incredibly slow process until I got the phone call asking me if I could move up my departure date two months and live in a French Speaking community. At this point the process went from me having an entire summer to get ready to go, to holy crap I leave 2 weeks after my graduation. The change in time was something that caught me completely off guard, but the opportunity that awaits in Togo sounds amazing, and if I'm going to go then I might as well go as soon as possible. The French on the other hand is something I'm a little anxious about. Usually programs in French speaking African countries only accept applicants that have at least 2 years of high school French plus 2 semesters worth in college. My Peace Corps placement officer was confident that I could adjust to the situation so I accepted. I currently have 1 quarter of French in the 7th grade and nothing else since. So Honestly, I am a bit nervous to be so behind as far as my language goes, however, I have heard encouraging news from multiple Peace Corps volunteers who were in the same predicament as me who progressed just fine. I realize that I will have to put a lot more effort into my language skills than a lot of my other Peace Corps trainees, and I plan on spending most of my evening engaging in conversations with my host family and reading some basic French literature(basically I'm going to shut down my English for two years if possible). My progress in French is absolutely critical if I am going to be an asset to my program. The projects that I will be working on in Togo are going to require me to engage in quite a bit of public speaking. Presentations, demonstrations, and counseling are just some of the activities that I will be doing on a daily basis.

So you might be thinking there's no way that you will be fluent in French after your 3 months of training. This is true, It will take longer than the three months of training to become fluent, however, The Peace Corps is known for having exceptional language training classes. The French courses will be tailored to situations, events, and conversations that are relevant to what I will be dealing with in terms of my job and community setting.

Basically to sum up I'm more worried about the language adaption rather than the other cultural differences that I see when I am there. Yeah I'm probably going to have to use a hole in the ground as a bathroom and walk 400 meters to a stream for microbial infested water that I will have to boil for 20 minutes before I can use it to take a bath and wash my clothes. This stuff doesn't really bother me, but if I cant make progress in adapting to the language, it will make for a frustrating experience. I'm still confident though....A tout à l'heure

Monday 14 April 2008

Togo in June!

I have just received my invitation to join the Peace Corps. The assignment is HIV/Health work in Togo, West Africa. Togo is a small French speaking country that borders Ghana, Benin, and Burkina Faso. I am really looking forward to this opportunity and judging by the pictures I have seen online Togo looks like an amazing place to be. I will be leaving the United States on June 4th, and will not return for 27th months. In the mean time I will be learning as much French as I can possibly handle. More to come soon.

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Application status

My application is currently on hold because I need to have my wisdom teeth taken out. I am getting this done during Spring Break so hopefully I will get my invitation to a specific country sometime in late March or April. Hopefully there are no other complications in the application process. Kinda getting anxious here.

Monday 4 February 2008

My Future

If you have found this site you probably already know that when I graduate in May from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro I will be going into the Peace Corps. This will be the site of my blogs for the next two years. I would not count on this being updated regularly for obvious reasons. The Peace Corps is a government program that will be shipping me over seas for 27 months. I have thought about joining the Peace Corps for roughly two years now and over the course of my time here in college I have realized that helping people who sincerely need it is one of the most rewarding aspects in life. Over the past few years my views have changed exponentially as to where exactly I want to go in my life. Though my original goal in college was to come out a Registered Dietician, I have come to realize that there is a greater opportunity for me to have an impact on peoples lives by working in the Peace Corps first.
On December 11th, I was nominated for public health education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since that time the Peace Corps have sent me quite a bit of paperwork (medical/dental forms) and I have now finally completed it all. Right now I am waiting on my invitation to serve which will tell me which country I will be in for the next 2 years.
For now all I can do is wait, My approximate departure date will be Aug/Sept. 08.

Frequently asked questions that I get all the time:

Are they going to send you to Darfur?
- no the Peace Corps do not have programs set up in countries where the workers will be in an unsafe environment ex. Sudan, Congo, Chad

How long will you be there?
27 months - 3 months of language and job related training followed by 2 years of service

Will you have access to internet?
Probably not, I have noticed that a lot of the blogs that Peace Corps workers have in Africa have sparse postings (monthly) and a lot of them stop after training because when they move to away from the training site they lose internet access.

Do you get paid anything to volunteer?
Volunteers are given money to provide necessities of living during the time that they are abroad. It will definitely be enough for me to eat and drink an adequate amount in a given day. At the end of the service I will be given $6,000 to acclimate myself back to the United States.

Why would you want to go to Africa?
first, I am ineligible to work in South/central America because all of the programs there require fluency of Spanish prior to departure. In Africa, it is unrealistic to think that many volunteers speak Swahili or some other indigenous language found in the southern countries.
second, Africa posses challenges that intrigue me. Most countries in Africa suffer incredibly high infant mortality and HIV rates. That being said, It should not be to difficult to address the needs of the community and take action. Don't get me wrong though change is not easy by any circumstances, but the possibility is there.
third, The area of health that I am most knowledgeable in is nutrition, and there are many preventable vitamin and nutrient deficiencies that parts of Africa suffer from and they can be cured.

Any chance you will be placed somewhere else?
There is a chance that I could end up in Asia or Eastern Europe, however, it is doubtful since I have been nominated for Africa.

What are the dangers of serving in Africa?
Water borne pathogens and parasites are the most common problems I have read about thus far. It is important to watch what you eat and drink. I have read a number of cases where volunteers are out for weeks at a time with intestinal problems.


Are you scared/nervous?
nope