Holy! I'm going to be in South Africa in a week !

I'm getting so nervous, excited and everything inbetween that I'm going to be flying out on Monday to start this adventure! The frantic dreams are upon me!

I got more paperwork this week regarding the Pre-Service Training (PST) that we'll be doing in Marapyane in the Mpumalanga Province, north of Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.

In the paperwork, there's a sample agenda of a day during training. After breakfast with our respective host families, language training, orienting ourselves to the community by walking around, then there's this:

"13:00-13:30: Break fo lunch under a tree somewhere in the community." Aww : )

Then there's more language training, Asset-Based Community Mapping and then we go back to the host family for dinner. I'm so excited to get there and figure all this out!

In the meantime, there's a snowstorm going on in Cincinnati (and much of the Midwest and Northeast). I'm snowed-in just packing and organizing.

My parent's street blanketed with snow.

I had a lot of fun this weekend with a girl's night with some Cincinnati friends and Wenoka who came in from Ann Arbor.

Katie, Lesley, Winnie, Casey, Rhonda out for dinner & drinks.

Hopefully, if this weather clears up, I'll be able to see a few more friends and family members before leaving. Fingers crossed!

Thank you to my family and friends

I am incredibly grateful to my family and friends for making these last several weeks before departing for South Africa so fantastic!

I was able to perform with the improv troupe I was in when I was in Michigan, Generation Gap. It was so fun to play with the troupe one last time, or for awhile at least, at the new improv club, Go Comedy!

Which, by the way, you should totally visit the club if you live near Ferndale, MI. Check out http://www.gocomedy.net/. Support local business!

Generation Gap at Go Comedy!

Back Row: Peter, Gerald, Andrew, Amy's head, Casey, Charles

Front Row: Susan

(not pictured: Alan)

My fantastic parents threw a going-away party for me today and my family came as well as some close friends. My Aunt Polly and my cousin Marilyn helped make food and I played the Temba Africa CD that my best friend Lesley got me. (Which, I think my dad hated it ... the minute people left, he unplugged the CD player, haha.)

My good friend Katie and me

It was such a great afternoon! My sincerest thanks to my family and friends for being there and being fabulous. I love you all so much!

Much love,

Casey

In Case You Were Wondering...

So I get asked lots of questions about what I'm about to do, why I'm doing it and such. So I thought in case there was anyone reading this who had questions, I'd answer a few of the ones I hear a lot.

• Where are you going to live? The first three months of my stay in South Africa will be in Marapyane (which isn't technically official, but my sources are pretty good). Marapyane is north of Pretoria, which is north of Johannesburg. It's relatively close to the border of Zimbabwe, compared to other parts of the country. During training, I'll be living with a South African host family.
• Are you going to live in a hut? Yeah, maybe. There are a variety of living options. The one I've heard most frequently is a small concrete house with a tin roof. I know some volunteers who are in South Africa now who live in a small house that's on the compound of a family in the community.
• How long will you be gone? Training is 3 months and the actual site placement is 2 years. I should finish up roughly early May 2011.
• Do they speak English? Yes and no. From what I can gather, the communities where they place volunteers also speak one of the 11 official languages of South Africa. Setswana tends to be one of the more popular languages. (I'm really excited about this b/c this is one of the languages where they use tongue clicks!)
• Are you going to come home during the 2 years? Since airfare is so expensive and I'll be making fairly little on U.S. standards, probably not. Volunteers do get a ton of vacation time, so I plan to travel around South Africa and the surrounding countries.
• Will you have Internet access? From what I've heard the vast majority of the 170+ volunteers currently serving in South Africa have Internet access - even a lot of the remote volunteers! So while I'm not sure, it'd be nice.
• Why did you want to do this? Lots of reasons. I really wanted to experience living internationally, while I'm still young-ish and have few attachments. I also want to move into community development work and I thought this would be an intensive, grassroots way to do it. I also really love helping people, but I don't think I'd be a good social worker. This is my way to use my talents to help people. Plus, Peace Corps is so well-known and world-renowned for language and cultural training - among other things. I wanted to do a volunteer program that people would recognize when I got back to the U.S. Peace Corps also really takes care of volunteers - in terms of medical needs, safety, etc.

There are also several other questions that I don't get asked that I bet people are wondering about. I'll post those in another blog. Or, post your questions here and I can answer them.

Peace,

Casey : )

I'm going to South Africa!

It's finally here, I've got less than one month before I am in South Africa! I accepted my invitation in October 2008 to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the HIV/AIDS Community Development program. The group I'm going with will train for three months north of Pretoria (capital of South Africa) and then live at separate sites for two years working within the community.

Before our group departs to South Africa, we will all meet at a U.S. city to do final paperwork and immunizations. I just found out yesterday that I'll be flying to Philadelphia on Feb. 2! This is the last big step for me in the Peace Corps process and I'm so excited!

I'm hoping to post pictures, community info, language lessons, etc. for my friends and family to enjoy South Africa as much as I'm hoping to!

Much love and peace!

Casey : )