Official Acceptance and.... Paperwork

So, after much thought, self-debate, and considerations, I officially accepted my invitation on Wednesday night! I was dwelling on the things that are going to be difficult about my PC service before I accepted, which was making it kind of difficult, but since then I've gotten a lot more excited. I'm sure there will be many difficulties, but there are going to be the other parts of service that will make them worth it. Meeting amazing people, having once-in-a-lifetime experiences, offering my (limited) knowledge and resources to people who otherwise might not have access to them, hopefully impacting at least a few people for the better, and learning things that I never would have discovered otherwise. It'll be an adventure, to be sure. But it's official! I'm leaving in January for 2+ years. Still seems kind of crazy, but there it is. Until then I'm going to be finishing the governmental paperwork, learning as much as I can about the life I'm about to jump into, and trying to make the most of my last few months in the States!

One of the ways I'm trying to learn about things is reading blogs from PCV's (term I will use frequently: Peace Corps Volunteers). The one I just finished was certainly enlightening. One of the posts that I think will be the most helpful are ones like what he wrote about coping on the rough days. Here's his approach. I'm sure I'll be sharing other blog links or fun tidbits about Panama as I come across them.

What I've learned so far is that Panama has a rich and interesting culture, history, and peoples. It's a beautiful country and has a lot of potential, but a lot of disparities as well. As a PCV, I hope to be able to help (in some minute way) those communities that haven't been able to pull themselves out of poverty that consumes too much of the population. I hope to use some of my anthropological interests during these two years as well to discover interesting things/differences about the people around me.

For now I'm working on my new passport application, and some other paperwork that the PC needs from me. In between all of that, I'm spending the weekend with my friend, Kelsey, at the beach, and trying to figure out a job for the next few months, both for a little bit of money and to keep gaining experience with teaching. Hopefully things will pan out soon!