Monday, June 06, 2005
Who are we? We'll we're the Peace Corps crew headed to Benin in July 2005. We'll be gone two years and 3 months. This blog is us figuring out what in the heck we're doing in the meantime.
Contributors
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- as for packing...
- Hello All... getting excited with a month to go? ...
- Zzzz...
- No doubt you've all devoured packing lists from ev...
- Third Post!
- Second Post!
- First Post!
21 Comments:
Hi, I'm Lyle! I'm 23, from San Luis Obispo, CA and will be serving as an SED/IT volunteer (mostly IT, since I know nothing about SED). I'm graduating college this Saturday!
The one luxury item I'm bringing to Benin is my trusty guitar. Hopefully you'll all have ear plugs so my screeching voice won't keep you up at night during training.
My favorite beers are Murphy's, Guiness, Fat Tire, and New Castle. My favorite cheese is myzithra, or feta. My favorite color is dark purple.
Lyle- do you like long walks on the beach too? ha ha! Congrats on graduating. I Also like Fat Tire! and anything from that company; sunshine wheat, etc. There's a good local one here (KC) called Boulevard, that is excellent. Guiness is a little too heavy for me.
I'm Erika, (said outloud sounds like America) and will be 22 on June 26. I am from rural Kansas, through and through. I get the feeling I'll be something of the good ol' country girl in this group (though not farm girl, and there is a difference). I am in Environmental action, job title Environmental community worker.
I graduated a couple of weeks ago, with Biology and French. I am using PC language training, actually, for the last 6 credits of my french degree.
My favorite colors are fuschia and green, though usually not together. I love the books Pride and Prejudice, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Matilda, and Jane Eyre, among others.
I'm all like "Wait! Why does it say everyone's posting so damn early?!?!? " Then I remembered that Lyle's in California. :-p
I'm Theresa. I just finished school at the University of Maryland (finally!). I too am SED/ IT. I studied econ and french in school, and write software manuals for a living, so I'm not sure what I'll be doing over there. :)
If I could be any animal, I would be a bird. I like cheese, Shiner Bock, traveling, indierock, and hot weather. I don't like light cigarettes or people who drive slowly in the left-most lane. My favorite color is red.
And Erika, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl. I'm right there with ya'. :)
Hello! My name is Jennifer and I'm from a small town in Wisconsin called Franksville. Since most people in this area don't even know where that is, I usually say I'm from Racine...but since you all are not from this area, you probably don't know where that is either. (It's just south of Milwaukee.)
Have you ever seen Frank's Sauer Kraut in grocery stores? It comes in a can or jar with a bright green label. Well, anyway, my town is where that stuff originated. There was a kraut factory up the road from my house...it really smelled bad in the summer. I'm glad they don't make it there anymore!
In Benin, I'll be serving as an SED volunteer. Hopefully there will be lots of training about this once we get there...lol. I have a Finance/business degree, so that should be helpful at least.
I graduated from college a year ago, and have been working at a bank the past year. It's been sooo boring here. (Yes, I'm currently at work.) Friday is my last day; I'm sooo excited!!
My favorite shots are Car Bombs and Lunchboxes, I like Blue Moon beer, but since I'm "from" Milwaukee, I'm also a big fan of Miller Light.
Obviously my name is Nick. I have lived in St. Louis all my life. I went to Saint Louis University and graduated last month. I studied history and biology. I love history and I hate biology.
The hands down winner for my luxury item is Catch-22. Some people read passages from the Bible ever night; I read passages from Catch-22. I've probably read it fifty times. I will also make my brother mail me burnt CDs with Family Guy and Deadwood episodes on them.
My posting is Rural Community Health worker. My training is in Come.
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I'm Ben. Most recently, I lived and worked in Michigan, I went to school in Indiana, came from Texas, once lived in New Zealand for a year and always seem to find myself returning to Washington DC when I'm not in any one of those other places, so that's what I'd call home.
Peace Corps has me pegged as SED - though I'm not quite sure what an "Organizational Development Advisor" does - Degree in Finance, graduated 2 years ago, have always worked with IT, and now spend way too much time wishing I had taken more (any?) French in college.
[strike]Lyle[/strike], oops, Nick, will be appalled, but despite repeated attempts, I have never been able to make it all the way thru Heller's most well known work - but I will, and do, read pretty much anything else, and all of the time.
As for drinks - I came up with all the wrong answers on the TB tests in my medical screening, and get to take pills for the next 8 months to make the PC medical people happy. So no drinking for me, though no, I have no idea how I'm actually going to pull that off. :)
Congrats to all of you who just (or are about to) finish[ed] school, and to Jen, for deciding that running off to africa was a much better choice than spending another year in cubicle-ville (I hope we're both right! ;) ).
Thanks Ben! I'm pretty sure this choice is a much better one...way more exciting and fulfilling.
Jennifer- I know that sauer kraut! my dad loves it, and insists on putting it on brautwursts, which is actually really good, but my goodness it smells! I'm glad they don't make it near you anymore too.
I hate saurkraut! So I'm glad they don't make it near you anymore too. A world with less saurkraut is good! They actually sell that same brand on my campus. BLECH.
LOL!! You'd never believe how this town worships the stuff! We have a Kraut Festival, complete with a Kraut Eating Contest and a Kraut Queen.
I'm Paul and from the previouos postings in this string it sounds like my suspicions are correct that I will be the old man of the crew at 45. Any idea of how large our crew is going to be? I am from, and in, Boston and will be serving as an SED?IT volunteer. Lyle, I expect to be doing more SED than IT.
I don't have a favorite color but my favorite beer would be Sam Adams (a little provincial I guess). My luxury item is going to be a pillow (I'm old) but I am still undecided abaout a laptop.
Thats all for now I guess. See you all in Philly apparently.
Hi Paul,
If they're going to keep the total numbers about the same (100 PCV's in country), and the rumor that there is only one training group this year is true, there could be 50 or more of us between all the programs.
But we're all SED, ENV and Health vol's - No education (which I take to be TEFL mostly?) vols, but the program packet put them at 45% of the overall count in country.
Curious! But that enough unfounded speculation for one post.
Paul- how do you not live with a favorite color? :)
Also, I can list "Sauerkraut" as a nickname, not because i'm sour, but because some friends thought it was neat how similar the word was with my last name, Kraus. Erika Sauerkraut. Junior high was weird.
Hey, I'm CaraBeth. I'm 25, from Bentonville, Aransas, and I will be a Rural Health Worker. I went to University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and I have a Criminal Justice and Sociology bachelors. I attempted grad school for about a year, and then dropped out and joined the Peace Corps. I am a RPCV from Morocco 2003, even though I was only in country about 3 months before we all got evacuated because of the war in Iraq. This 2nd departure has been delayed because while I was in Morocco I fell down one of the Atlas Mountains, and severed my ACL in my knee. The government is really slow to approve surgery. Anyway, I am looking forward to a FULL two years in Africa, and I'm trying not to think of all the gross stuff that I know is coming.
Right now I am working at a psych ward for kids (I'm kind of like the principal), and I can't wait to be outdoors and not locked into a building for 10 hours a day. :) I don't really drink beer, unless you count Hornsby - but I am a big vodka girl (and I plan to bring an emergency supply along!).
I can't wait to see all of you in Philly - I should probably check my mail to see if my stage kit is there. Maybe we will get to see some fireworks - those of us who have to get there early.
I'm Sarah, hailing from Ann Arbor, MI doing SED/IT with an emphasis on SED.
I'm a mere 22, graduated last December after studying (highly theoretical) economics and history. I'm excited to try some real life stuff out and am thrilled to be going to L'Afrique.
Beer...I drink it...microbrewed in Detroit is a special treat. I can't imagine that there are enough books in the PC library :)
Hello! I'm Brook, 23 from Seattle, WA and I'll also be serving as as SED volunteer in Benin.
I graduated from college in 2003, spent a year teaching English in France and another interning around Seattle, looking for all those job skills I didn't really get in my (highly theoretical but fascinating) degree in international studies.
My favorite beers are Mac and Jacks or Fat Tire, favorite cheese is Morbier or Camembert. I'm a big fan of Catch-22, the Master and Marguerite, and several shades of blue.
I'm a city boy these days, but I also grew up on a farm a very long time ago; looking forward to getting back to Kerosine lamps and outhouses again! (mmm, well, kind of....)
Hi everybody, I'm Carrie! I graduated from Miami University (the one in Ohio) in May and then headed for Greece for a month, which is where I was when my invite came. I was originally nominated for August, so just now getting back home I'm feeling really behind.
I'll be doing SED in Benin, so hopefully something I learned from my Econ degree will be relevant. I picked up a French minor after randomly studying abroad in Luxembourg. I opted for PC instead of attempting grad school.
I'm from a pretty rural area, which I refer to as Cleveland for simplicity (it's close to Cedar Point if anyone knows where that is). And though I despise country music, I worked on a farm when I was younger. Did any of your schools have drive your tractor to school day? I'm not kidding.
My favorite color is blue, and I like indie music. While in Greece I enjoyed ouzo, the local Mythos beer, and feta cheese. I'm a vegetarian and when I was applying, I had to fill out a PC form basically saying that I would eat meat if someone slaughtered their only cow for me, or if my nutrition was lacking. I plan to pack peanut M&M's and instant mashed potatoes.
Hi everyone, I'm Judy. I graduated from UNC (home of the national champion Tarheels!) in May. I'll be 22 on July 8, when we get to Benin! My assignment is nutritionist in Rural Community Health. Hopefully my degrees in nutrition and biology will help me out, but my French is a little rusty, so that'll need some work.
My favorite book recently is Mountains Beyond Mountains. I like to cook...I'm interested to see what the food is like in Benin.
In response to Ben's speculation on numbers, you were right. When I asked, they told me there are 51 of us leaving on July 5.
Hey everyone! I've been blogging for awhile so I figure I should introduce myself.
My name is Kat. I'm 24 and from "Everybody's Hometown" that is Media, Pennsylvania. Luckily it's close enough to Philly to keep my sane. I graduated from William and Mary in 2003 where I majored in International Relations and French. I was also on the gymnastics team. My friends here are highly concerned that I will get medically separated after attempting to do a flip "in the Motherland"...so no one let me try that.
After graduation I trained with Peace Corps in Gabon. I loved it but was no where near ready for it. I ETed right before swearing in. After that I moved to Lafayette, Louisiana where I worked with AmeriCorps, helping to implement an HIV education program for at-risk kids. I moved back home in November, which I tend to do when I run out of money, and have been working EVERYWHERE since then.
My favorite beer is Yuengling, although in college I developed a bizarre fondness for Franzia boxed wine. My other loves include rock-climbing, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and the World Cafe (anyone?) Carrie, I, too, am bringing lots of M&Ms.
My assignment is Rural Community Health. I can't wait to meet everyone in Philly!
Judy, I agree with you about Mountains Beyond Mountains, just finished it myself. However, I am a UK fan, so we don't agree about everything.
I spoke recently with an RPCV from Benin (returned in 2000), she said that the country was restocked with vols twice a year when she was there making each group only about 20-30. Apparently they have changed since then.
Katbenin, I think Ben & Jerry's is what I am going to miss.
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