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

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.