Leaving on a jet plane...

Welp, after a solid year of goodbye lunches and dinners and parties, I may actually be leaving! Tomorrow I begin my journey to Madagascar! 35 of us will fly to Philly, PA for a brief orientation and shots, off to NYC at 2am, to Johannesburg on Tuesday, and then to Madagascar to begin our training.

Honestly, I feel ready. Really ready. I don't know exactly what the future holds, but I feel like I can finally be relaxed and excited about it.  Saying goodbye was really, truly hard sometimes, but I have been practicing for almost a full year now. My friends aren't going anywhere that I won't be able to follow someday. I will still be able to communicate with everyone.

I realized that some of the people that I felt the need to say goodbye to are people that I only see once or twice a year. This trip seemed so different at first because the separation distance would be so much further, but I realized recently that it is silly to think of it that way. It is similar to feeling like the deep end in the pool is safer than a calm lake. Once it is over your head, it doesn't matter how deep it is, all you have to do is swim. In the end, there is not that much difference between being separated by 50 miles, and being separated by an ocean or two. We can always write.

So I am excited. And I am ready to get on a plane. And I will miss everyone like crazy. But I'm sure I will also be distracted and hopelessly curious about my new home.

If you want to write to me (please write to me!), you can send letters to:

(My Name), PCV
Bureau du Corps de la Paix
B.P. 12091
Poste Zoome Ankorondarno
Antananarivo 101
Madagascar

How it works:

I will be a Peace Corps Agroforester in Madagascar for 27 months, but my specific job description will depend on which village I end up living in, what their needs are, and the climate in that area. For the first three months, I will live and train in the village of Mantasoa (which is near the capital, Antananarivo).  During the first month, I will live with a Malagasy host family, but attend class in the Peace Corps training center everyday. For the next two months, I will live at the training center. After that... I will go to my village (I won't find out which village until I arrive in Madagascar), and hopefully, I will stay there for the next two years!

Thank you to everyone who has helped me get here. I will miss you all and I will be back before you know it!