Tic, tic, tic...

Fi   At last! Count down has begun. Tuesday I will board a plane and take off to begin my Peace Corps experience.  First stop, Philadelphia, for the first meeting with my group known as the A-19er’s, the 19th group of volunteers to be sent to Armenia. We’ll board a bus for JFK on Thursday for the red-eye to Vienna. We have a 14 hour layover there, which is a nice little travel bonus from the Peace Corps. I just hope I won’t be too bleary eyed and jet lagged to take advantage of spending a few hours in one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. On Saturday, June 4th at 4:35 AM, we will arrive in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. That will be 7:35 PM  Friday evening, EST. Then, a 1.5 hour bus trip to a small tourist hotel outside of the city for a few days to unwind and learn a few words and phrases to get us started communicating before moving in with our host families on June 7^th. 

     “The mission of the Peace Corps is to promote world peace and friendship by providing qualified volunteers to interested countries in need of trained manpower, by fostering a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served and by fostering a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans.”

I have been assigned to the Community and Business Development program.  I will keep you posted with my experiences, my work, whatever that’s going to be, and about life in my town or village. More than anything else, I am looking forward to meeting the people.  I think the best part of being a PC volunteer is going to be hanging out with the locals, making friends, and hopefully, make the world a little more understanding and tolerant.

 

     ”To foster a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans” means that I am responsible to you to tell my story of living, working, and sharing life in Armenia with the Armenian people. I will do this by keeping this blog ongoing and current. I can’t complete this part of the mission alone. I need you to check it periodically and also my Facebook page. J  I encourage you to write back or leave comments. It may be a while before I get back to you personally because I am not sure what the availability of Internet access will be but l will respond as time and opportunity allow.

      Finally, I want to thank each one of my family and friends so very much for their support, cards, letters,  emails, luncheons, beach days and the Bon Voyage party.  I am beyond grateful for your loving thoughts and encouragement.  Your positive energy has rescued me more than a few times when the doubts started to creep in and fear lurked in the corners of my mind.    peacecorpsjournals.com