4 weeks until departure

Four weeks from today, I will be flying to Philadelphia to meet the rest of the Peace Corps trainees who I will be serving with in Togo. Four weeks from tomorrow, I will be boarding a flight to Paris and then finally, in four weeks and two days I will step foot on a flight to Lome, the capital of the Republic of Togo, my home for the next two years. The reality of my move hasn't really sunk in until now, but at the four week countdown, I think it is finally hitting me that I really am leaving my friends, family, and home behind for what will undoubtedly be one of the most amazing and challenging adventures of my life! After a year of applications, interviews, medical exams, legal clearances, and nail-biting waiting, it's hard to believe I'm finally going to be joining the Peace Corps!

Flashback to 3 months ago, the day before graduation: This was the day that Peace Corps applicants dream of, the day my beautiful blue envelope arrived holding the answer to the question I had been wondering, and everyone else had been asking me, where in the world will I be living for the next 27 months? When I opened that package and saw the answer, I screamed with excitement and felt enormous relief since I was being sent to one of my top choices: Togo. Why am I so excited to be going to Togo? There are several reasons:

1. Togo is in Africa, which was where I really wanted to go as a Peace Corps volunteer due to the amazing previous experiences I've had in Africa and my desire to spend even more time living there.

2. Togo is in francophone West Africa. This makes me even more excited to be going to Togo since I get to continue using my french and I get to live in a different part of the region that I fell in love with while on study abroad in Niger. Togo is also well located within West Africa. It's wedged between Ghana to the west, Benin to the east, and Burkina Faso to the north. It is also close enough to Niger, separated by either Benin or Burkina Faso, that I can feasibly travel overland and visit friends in Niamey.

3. Togo is 60% animist. While in Niger, one of my favorite things was to learn about animist religion and traditions. However, these traditions were hidden underneath the openly practiced Islam. In Togo, apparently about 60% of the population openly practices animist religions and that is something I am sure will make my Peace Corps experience interesting and exciting!

4. Togo's size and diversity. Togo is a small country, only about 70 miles wide and 400 miles long. Although Peace Corps says that the infrastructure can be very poor, making travel difficult, compared to many other countries, Togo's size will make it relatively easier to get around, see the country, visit other volunteers, and travel to neighboring countries. Also, Togo's length allows it to cross several different climatic zones. The south of the country borders the ocean, which I'm also really excited about!, then there is a region in the middle with small mountains and lush, humid landscape, and in the north the climate will be similar to Niger with dry brush land. There are also around 40 different ethnic groups with varying languages and cultures. This diversity in culture and climate should make Togo an interesting country to live in.

These are the main reasons I was and am excited to be placed in Togo. I feel incredibly lucky and I can't wait to arrive and learn about the aspects of life in Togo that I never expected or anticipated.

I'm also really happy with the assignment I've been given: Natural Resource Management. From the small amounts of information Peace Corps has given me, it seems NRM (there are lots of acronyms in Peace Corps), volunteers work on a wide variety of projects from reforestation campaigns, to nutrition projects, to environmental education. There also seems to be a large degree of flexibility and volunteers are encouraged to do side projects that they are interested in and their community wants.

I'm sure whatever I'm expecting now will be different from the reality I will face. The advice I've been given from all the volunteers I've met has always been to expect the unexpected. However, what I can count on is whatever happens it will be a challenging, new, exciting, and interesting adventure that will hopefully provide me with interesting insights and stories to share on this blog!

For the next four weeks I will be trying to pack my life into the 80 lbs of luggage the Peace Corps allows us and I will be trying to spend as much time as possible with family and friends. I'll probably update right before leaving when the panic really sets in! Until then, enjoy the rest of summer!! :)