Africa Bound

After some delay my departure date has finally arrived! And it’s a little surreal to think that on Thursday, November 5 I will be stepping off a plane into my new life and next adventure in The Gambia.

As many of you know, the trainee class to Mauritania was canceled and the volunteers were pulled from that country in mid August, which left me with 4 months wide open. I made the best of the delay though, visiting family and friends in 9 states and a district (Vermont, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, California, Minnesota, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and New York), 2 countries (Costa Rica and U.S.A.), and 4 national parks/monuments (Rocky Mnt, White Sands, Carlsbad, and Guadalupe Mnt… thanks Margie!). I spent time with all of my nieces and nephews and couch/floor/bed surfed at each of my bros houses (congrats Ryan and Sara!). The love and support from all of you over the past few months, and years, provides me with the strength and desire to jump into the Gambia ready to learn and help.

Which is where I’m headed right now! Currently I’m on a train from VT to Philly where our training class has ‘staging’, basically a 24 hour meet-and-greet before we load on a plane Wednesday evening. Philly cheese steaks anyone? I certainly hope so!

Once in the Gambia, we spend a few days in Banjul, the capitol city, at the Gambia Pastoral Institute (GPI)… sounds nice. From then until the beginning of January I’ll be living with a family about 150k outside Banjul and training with a group of 3 to 4 volunteers. It’s called Community-based training (CBT). I’m still working on the Peace Corps lingo. I think they may have more acronyms than UW- Madison, though nothing so cleaver as SOAR or SOO. Hopefully during training (PST- Pre-Service Training) I’ll be close enough to the city to find access to the inter-webs and send out some updates!

For now I’m just soaking in the last of the fall colors and cool weather. Other than some packing dilemmas I’m feeling ready and excited. I mean who wouldn’t be overjoyed to go to a country with hippos, 32 different kinds of bats, and pangolins (super cute in and armadillo sort of way). I’m leaving my nomadic life behind and settling down in the Gambia.