Preparing for Zambia

I have recently accepted an invitation to serve in the Peace Corps in Zambia! Phew!! The application process has been a long one requiring an immense amount of patience, flexibility, and persistence. I can only imagine that this is the first of many hurdles I am going to throw myself over during the next two years serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). My placement officer emailed me a few weeks ago on a Friday afternoon to set up yet another interview, this time over the phone, to get a better idea of what position(s) would suit me. This emailed contained familiar language basically saying, "Don't get excited just yet, you have merely slivered up one more stair." I quickly wrote back to set up a time, and then scoured the 'inter-webs' to learn all that I could about what this interview was all about and what types of questions I would be asked. I soon found out that the questions were very similar to those presented to me in my recruiting interview way back in June of last year. I geared myself up for the interview early on the following Monday morning, and began getting nervous as my placement officer didn't call me precisely at 9:30 am as I had expected. The interview went well and before I knew it, my placement officer was telling me about a position she thought would be a great fit for me. About 15 minutes later I hung up the phone and took a deep breath...I think was I was just offered an invitation?! But, after a year of waiting and taking baby steps to get to this point, I didn't believe it was true until I received an email saying that I need to check my online application for a status update. This has been one of the silliest parts of this process - I get an email telling me to check my online application which then tells me that a letter is on the way. Go figure!

So, I depart for my program August 1st, 2011 and am really excited about what the next two years have in store for me.  I will be serving as a Fish Culture Extension Agent for Peace Corps/Zambia's Rural Aquaculture Promotion (RAP) Project. This program was created to fulfill the Zambian Department of Fisheries' (DoF) request for human resource assistance. Now the preparation begins for this crazy adventure I've signed myself up for, and I couldn't be happier.