One Week in the Minnesota Breeze

Due to many logical requests, I will, indeed, be keeping a blog while in Samoa.


I leave next Monday for a day of staging in Los Angeles, where I will meet other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) in the Samoa and Tonga programs. Then we all ship out on October 5th! We're thrown in there with two months of in-country training and we'll be sworn in in December.


My official title is English Literacy and Community Development Volunteer. From what I know now, I'll teach my own class of Year 7s for about an hour a day and I'll co-teach 4-6 and 8 Years for the rest of the day. The school day ends around 1:30pm because of the heat and humidity. That's right, I'm trading snowy Minnesota winters for year-long humid Minnesota summer days. Here's to the sun-bleached blonde afro and bronze farmer tan I'll learn to love. After the school day is over and during school breaks, I'll be working on community development projects; what those will be is determined when I get my placement in December. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for something to do with reading/writing, theater, or music. Speaking of which, my bags are going to be weighed down by the excessive amounts of books I plan on bringing. My flute, which I've had since tenth grade (the one whose foot joint took a tumble down the bleachers during pep band in high school) and has traveled to Texas, Florida, Colorado, South Dakato, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Germany will also be accompanying me along the way. I guess when I bought a used saxophone in tenth grade and then traded it in for a brand new flute, I had no idea what a world traveler that instrument would become.


Anyway, here's to the last week!