Toto, we´re not in Kansas anymore

Well, I have a new home in a tiny rural town carved out of the side of a very dry mountain and a new family. We moved in with our families today after instructions from the PC staff. My family is made up of Walter (padre), Marta (madre), 4 children ages 2 to 12, grandmother (in her 70´s with multiple illnesses including dementia), a dog named Rambo and 3 ducks. They are incredibly warm and helpful. If I don´t learn Spanish here, I am hopeless. The youngest child, Jorge is a really independent 2 year old much like Alex at 2!

I have a great room at the end of a hallway. My room is big, airy with windows looking out at a small mountain. There´s a water delivery twice a week to a tank on the roof over the shower. I wish I could come home for 1 day and leave behind half my stuff. I have so much more than I need.

This family has had volunteers from 4 PC groups so they know how to help me settle in and will take me to the training center tomorrow until I find my way and can take the bus. Their house is at the top of a VERY steep hill so I´ll walk down to the bus in the morning and take a mototaxi uphill at the end of the day.

I´m writing this with the help of 4 year old Jennifer who can´t understand why Í don´t have the music and headphones on.

My house mother, Marta is in school 3 days a week to learn become a hairdresser. She ran a resturant but inflation drove her to close it. My housefather drives a cab in Lima long hours every day.

I have to say the PC staff here have been so helpful. They´ve really thought through how to get us started and provided a lot of support including instructions on how to take a bucket bath and how to tell people to get out of the way you have an urgent need to get to the bathroom. The bathroom talk is pretty funny as was a slide presentation by one of our two physicians on how to manage the inevitable. So far, so good.

Tomorrow we start formal language training which will include classes (yours truly will be in the most basic)lots of field trips, time in the markets, etc with the language staff. Walking to the internet cafe, I met a neighbor who is a nursing assistant in the local clinic. She´s going to talk to her boss about letting me observe a vaccine clinic in a couple of weeks. Yippee!

I´m tired but slept 9 hours last night. I am glad to get over the initial shyness about meeting my family. I feel quite comfortable with them. We´re organizing a yoga class at the training center for the end of the day. The diet of rice and potatoes in large quantities served together will be offset by the walk up the hill to my home.

Did I say I brought way too much stuff and am really glad to be here?

Day 1 in Peru

Well with flight delays we arrived in Lima around 10:30PM, got through customs, got the luggage for 47 people and arrived at the retreat center where we are for 2 nights at 1AM. Actually, all went well. The Peace Corps staff who met us were really helpful and welcoming.

We started orientation today after 5 hours sleep under the Peace Corps motto "hit the ground running". Tomorrow we meet our host families and move in with them. I had my first language assessment which was taped and am competing for the most improved volunteer award at the end of 11 weeks. Our orientation is really well organized and the staff here are great. Lots of good people and laughter in my volunteer group.

I'll learn on 11-8 where I'll be working and living although we will all be in coastal provinces. The health director is a nurse with her masters in public health, Emilia.

Many thanks to Mary, Sarah V and Nancy that I didn't walk out of my language interview in tears, especially since I barely could remember English I was so tired! We'll learn tomorrow or Monday which language class we're in but I already know I'll be in the most basic and learning fast.

Don't worry if you don{t hear from me much for awhile. I'm alive, well and cheerful.
Lots to learn. New food, cold showers, new bird calls. There was a llama hanging around on the porch of the retreat center today. Several yoga practitioners and more who want to learn in this group. Two guys brought guitars and another brought harmonicas so there's music in store while we're in training. I spend 1/2 hour struggling to use the keyboard in an internet cafe and then learned we have wireless connection in our rooms at this center.

Good start to the journey.

Tomorrow--Peru!

Well, I just finished 2 days orientation in Washington DC and am ready to head out tomorrow. I was a bit taken aback when I walked in and realized that there are 46 volunteers about 40 years younger than me--total of 47 in our group. After the 2 days together with lots of activity, laughter and information, I'm not worried about being left out. Lots of good people with some interested in yoga, some music makers, varied backgrounds as you'd expect.

It was hard saying goodbye to Alex who announced to his school, "This is my grandma and she's going to Peru!" The day before he asked what state Meru is in. He instructed me on the cool stickers to get when I get shots. I'll be connected to his school through a correspondence match as well as connected to Lily's first grade at Nuestro Mundo in Madison.

So tomorrow morning we have to have our luggage ready to load up at 6:15 and fly out of DC for Peru at 1PM. I'll be at a retreat center in Lima for 2 nights with more orientation and then meet my host family on Sunday. Sometime on Saturday, I'll have a Spanish interview. Gulp. Say a little prayer for me--preferably in Spanish.

Adios
Sara

Ready or not!

Well, I leave for Washington DC tomorrow and think I'm actually ready. Brian, you really are right, the devil is in the details (and I've been deviled by details). I took my packed luggage to the airport today to see how close I was to the weight limit and only had to do a bit of juggling. The large rolling duffel came in at 51.5 pounds and my backpack at 34. I don't want to talk about the daypack... And left behind books to be mailed later. Left behind the good coop peanut butter.

Last night I packed the big duffel, wrestled everything in place and then realized my yoga mat was sitting out in the corner of the room. Everything came out again to make room for that mat!

I've shed a lot of tears saying goodbye. And I'm very excited. While I'm a little nervous about my Spanish, about keeping up with the pace of training and about all the adaptation, I haven't once waked up and thought, "Oh no, this is a mistake!"

I fly to Washington DC tomorrow for a night and morning with Jen, Alex and Jeff. Then on Wednesday at noon, Jen will take me to the hotel in Washington DC where I begin this journey. We have 2 days of orientation (and probably immunizations) and fly to Peru on Friday the 12th.

Thank you to all who have lent many hands to helping me get ready for this journey. It's taken a village to launch this Peace Corps volunteer.

Last days in Madison

Wow, 2 weeks from today, I'll be checking into the Peace Corps training at the Holiday Inn, Georgetown, Washington DC. I'm flying in a day early to spend the evening with Jenni, Jeff and Alex. Congratulations Jenni and Jeff on your engagement! I'll be flying back from Peru for a wedding sometime next year!

I'm down to the wire on packing and last minutes details like how I'll get my taxes done while I'm gone. My friend Helen is now on my bank account so if you hear she's living in Paris in a little bungalow... I've been out of my house for 2 weeks staying with Norma and that's a relief--glad to be done packing up the house. I had a totally wonderful 2 weeks in the mountains in Montana where Edward left me with his house, car and fresh trout in the frig. I slept, hiked, practiced yoga, read and ate good food.

I'll be in DC over the weekend for Alex's 4th birthday, then back to Madison for one last week of packing and goodbyes.

I'm really looking forward to meeting the others in my group after reading their on-line bios and notes. It's too late to worry any more about my Spanish, I got what I got now!

From application to invitation

The whole process from application to invitation took 10 months and often felt like a part time job. I submitted my online application December 10, 2007. Then on a sub-zero day in January, I slogged through the ice and snow to a brief face to face interview with the on-campus Peace Corps rep. That was followed in February with a longer phone interview with the regional rep who then "nominated" me for a Latin American health team leaving in September. I later learned that there may or may not be a relationship between this nomination and where I would be asked to serve.

Then came the part time job, rounding up college transcripts (who keeps the transcript from 2 years at OSU in Corvallis from 1961-1963?), reference letters, fingerprints and the medical review. The medical review process was very time consuming. Try getting into a specialty spine clinic for a back problem you don't currently have... I am fortunate to have a primary care doc willing to spend the time to go thru old records and fill out the forms in detail. Medical clearance came thru 2 mlonths after the forms went off in the mail. Thank you Dr. Holly Keevil!

Then I waited and waited. I really wanted a Latin American assignment and was asked to submit a language assessment. At this point the process went from time consuming to frustrating. Randy Pausch in his great book, The Last Lecture, said that brick walls are there to let you know how much you want something. That pretty much sums it up.

About in April, I chose to live "as if". As if I would be going to serve somewhere in September. The Peace Corps gives about 2 months between invitation and departure. This wasn't going to give me time to resign a job, rent my house, put my belongings in storage and figure out how to manage finances while out of the country for 2 years. So I went ahead "as if" and by the time the invitation came, I'd resigned, made arrangements to rent my house and a hundred other details with no idea how it would all work out.

Then July 3, the friendly Fedex man rang my doorbell with the invitation. I was so excited, I raced to my friend Helen's house to open it with her. She wasn't home from work yet and I was too excited to wait. So I raced back home with the invitation sitting there like a bomb about to explode. I kept thinking, "What if it is Peru???" As soon as I got home, I opened the packet and there it was--Peru in September. Not much sleep that night--I kept waking up thinking, "Peru, I'm going to Peru". I am so happy with this assignment. 3 weeks away!

Getting started

There’s a long road between a dream of going into the Peace Corps in 1966 and my invitation to serve in Peru in 2008! The idea was dormant for years and then in 2006, I began to explore work in international health.

Starting point

• I talked with Ann Downer, faculty in Global Health at U of Washington and my sister's neighbor. She helped me realize that jobs in global health are hard to come by without prior international experience either paid or as a volunteer. Gave me suggestions about organizations for volunteer work and suggested Peace Corps.
• I read a lot about volunteer work in international health, contacted organizations and realized I wanted to live in another culture for a period of time rather than volunteer for 3-6 months.
• Read Finding Work in Global Health.
• Read Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer.
• Read Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders. While I have great respect for the work of this organization, when I closed the book, I let go of any fantasy of working with them. Way beyond my level of risk-taking.
• Met with Lori DiPrete Brown, faculty in the Global Health Department here at UW Madison. She gave me so many ideas that I left with my head spinning! And signed up for class fall semester 2006.
• First class—Global Epidemiology. Totally fascinating with outstanding lecturers. I felt like I’d been living in a VERY small world and wanted to learn more. Loved the reading.
• Second class—Health and Disease in Uganda. Again I was totally engrossed and encouraged by the professor, Cindy Haq.
• Third class—International Health Systems gave me a solid overview of the agencies and systems. More encouragement from professor Linda Bauman.
• Fourth class—Foundations in Global Health. While I was an audit student for the classes, in the prior classes I did the reading and showed up for class. For this class, Lori DiPrete Brown asked that I do all the homework. That kicked me into gear to write letter of inquiry to 3 organizations as well as do an intensive study of one country (Nicaragua—wish I’d known I was going to Peru!)

Taking the classes was terrific. One of the more helpful aspects was exploring the difference between disaster relief, humanitarian aid and development work. I moved from daydreaming to concrete planning once I knew I wanted to work in grassroots community development. All roads were leading to the Peace Corps but then there was the application process… More about that later.