I will be doing health extension and Lucas will be doing business development.
Lucas wrote Evan, our recruiter, an acceptance e mail today.
This means we will be back in the States by August 1 and we will be leaving for the South Pacific sometime in September.
It's been so strange for me to mentally and emotionally change regions of the world. I was sure that we would be in Latin America. Convinced. Or Eastern Europe as that would be my least favorite place to spend two years...but the Pacific Islands?? Not on my radar in the least. The night before we got our nomination, a dorm mate of ours was presenting a travelogue on Fiji. She was a returning Peace Corps volunteer and lived in a traditional village for two years. I had talked to her before about the Peace Corps in general and about her experience and the talk was really late at night (8:30!!! That's late for me!) so Lucas and I decided to skip it and go to bed instead....that's how far away the South Pacific was in terms of possible placements....and now here we are, going to the South Pacific. That day, I went to the computer lab during my break to see what these islands were called and wrote them on the back of the copy of the email so I could tell people (or at least read them off to people when they asked). I was in the dish pit for most of the afternoon and Lucas would tell me facts he had gathered about each island and where he thought we would be based on programs from the dish pit window. It's looking like it will be Vanuatu as it has both our programs but who really knows. It could be anywhere!
I've spent the last couple days letting the information soak in, Most likely, it will be volcanic (like Ross Island where we are now), we probably won't have running water or electricity, and we will both be completely outside of our comfort zone.
I think that's the best part about this placement as opposed to Latin America. Although Latin America is huge and incredibly diverse, it would feel more comfortable and familiar to me where as it would be totally outside of Lucas' comfort zone. This way, we will both be starting out at the same place: completely and totally lost.
Also, I think there's something special about polynesian culture and I'm excited to see how I will change and what I will learn. When I was a little girl, my favorite book was island of the blue dolphins. I would dream of her lifestyle and wished that maybe one day, I could live like her, even if she had it really hard and lost her whole family. I think it's because she lived by the sea and I love the sea.
I'm really scared, too.
I know I will have meltdowns. I know that we are asking a lot of our young marriage as Lucas and I will be our only support system-- I know that sometimes, I'll miss creature comforts like temperature control, grocery stores, mosquito free lifestyles, and ice cream. I know that I will miss my friends and my family--I know I'll feel really trapped on an island floating on the south pacific far away from anything that is familiar...why my soul craves this is beyond me...I look forward to living a simple life-- to see if it's really something I want; I look forward to building a solid foundation for my marriage, I look forward to living so close to the natural world and most importantly, I'm really excited to know my new neighbors and to wear a mumu everyday (Lucas tells me that women wear mumus--a throwback from missionary trips of the 1800s)
Lucas and I told our parents today what our placement is going to be. When I told my mom, she mis-heard me and thought I said "Egypt", which freaked her out because she wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I was in the middle east. So when I repeated myself and said "no, mama, the south pacific" you could hear the relief in her voice...It was a great way to break the news to her.
Lucas' mom, Jane, told us about family priests who worked or have worked in the South Pacific which is nice to know and maybe we'll go visit one of them.
Our Antarctic friends are all excited for us and we may have a wave of visitors come February and early March of next year.
Of course, all our friends and family are more than welcome to visit us!
I've included a few photos so ya'll can see where we might be going--all my love, alex
Vanuatu
Children on the beach of Vanuatu
Can you tell I miss kids? Kids canoeing in the water of Vanuatu-- We keep reading that the water is gorgeous!
Our dream hut--we'll see where we will be living!
4 comments:
I promise you, a lack of ice cream isn't as bad as it sounds! I can't eat dairy again until I stop breastfeeding, and I ate a ton of ice cream when I was pregnant. After almost 6 months of no ice cream, I don't even think about it anymore. I crave the beach much more, and it looks like you will be on an amazing one.
Alex and Lucas,
What an adventure and such a beautiful place to be. I think you will fall in love with it.
Hooray, Alex and Lucas! What a relief to have at least a small idea of where you'll be and what life will be like for the next few years!! I'm jealous - I picture the South Pacific to be slightly more romantic than Ukraine. ;-) I mean, they made a musical about it and everything!
I have friends (a couple) who left Sept. 9 for Micronesia. They are teaching. I'd be happy to put you in touch with them, although it seems like their Internet time is pretty slim.
I've really been enjoying reading your blog. Alex, you're so wonderfully descriptive. Lucas, I enjoy getting an idea of day-to-day life, and the pictures are great! What an experience you are having (and will have)!!
Wow- the South Pacific! Sounds like an adventure for sure. I have a friend from college who was in the Peace Corps in Tonga and loved it.
Incidentally, I'm thoroughly impressed with you guys for getting up at 5am. Early morning: not my strong point :)
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