Ecuador, here we come!

It feels like it has been a long journey so far, yet the real journey is just about to begin! The application process to get into the Peace Corps began 1 year ago today as I am now ready to head for Ecuador for my 27 months of service! The process was long, including a lengthy and detailed application, an interview with my recruiter, many medical and dental forms, another interview with my placement officer, and finally my invitation to serve, each step having much waiting between the next. Now, as I am just hours away from leaving for Ecuador, I think it was all worth it.

The last month has been particularly hectic with trying to finish school, pack for 27 months and say goodbyes to all my family and friends. The packing was quite challenging, only being allowed 2 checked bags totaling 100lbs and 2 carry on bags. After many frustrating repacks with help from my mom and dad, I finally managed to fit everything I needed into 65.5lbs and more gallon-sized Ziploc bags than imaginable! I am even more pleased with my packing job since I’ve arrived in Philadelphia for staging and seen the amount of luggage some of the other volunteers are bringing – I would not want to be carrying any more than I have right now, but many people used up the entire 100lb limit.

I arrived in Philadelphia yesterday, meeting a few of the volunteers. Today we had registration to turn in all of the paperwork, then training to discuss Peace Corps goals and core expectations, along with our aspirations and anxieties for our time in Ecuador. There are 62 trainees in my group, including volunteers in community health, HIV/AIDs , youth development and ESL. I am a community health volunteer and was told in my invitation that I will be focusing in child/maternal health, reproductive health, and environmental health, although I don’t know anything more than that at this point. It was fun getting to meet so many new, diverse people, many of whom I think will become good friends. I am the only volunteer from Colorado, so I will work hard to represent CO well :)

We are now in a waiting phase, making last minute packing changes and final phone calls before leaving the country. Since we are such a big group, we are leaving for JFK airport with plenty of time to spare, which means we leave at 1:30am and don’t arrive in Quito until 6:00pm, so it will be a long day. The Peace Corps Ecuador staff will be at the airport to meet us and we will immediately get on buses to go to Tumbaco, a city about 1 hour outside of Quito. We are spending 2 nights in the Peace Corps training center in Tumbaco to do our health vaccinations and initial training about how to live with host families, etc. Our host families will then meet us at the training center on Saturday and we will spend the weekend with the families we will live with for the next 3 months.  There are some nerves about what to expect, but for now everyone mostly seems very excited to get to Ecuador and begin the training and work that many of us have only imagined and speculated about for so long. Ready or not, here we go!