AND THE WINNER (country) IS .....

KENYA!

That's right! The verdict was returned and I found out yesterday around 3pm that I'm headed to East Africa for the next two years. EEeeek! Here's what I know so far:

• I depart on October 11th (WAY sooner than I had originally planned but it was this or next April)
• I am going to be teaching Chemistry, Biology, and Physics (bleh) to what age, I won't know till I get there.
• I am going over and training with lots of other volunteers, who are going to be teaching in the areas of science (like me!), math, and deaf education! Wow!
• We are all also going to be trained in HIV/AIDS education
• Just because I train with them does not mean I will have any English speakers at my 2-year site
• Every Peace Corps tour of duty is 27 months... 3 months of intensive language, programmatic, and cultural training, and then 2 full years on your own.
• I most likely won't have running water or electricity, but the Peace Corps does promise me a room that locks, and some windows! What else could you need?
• At this point I have only read through about 1/6 of the multitudes of papers and books they sent me, so that's what I'm doing for the next few days.
• Even though most don't have electricity, there are A LOT of volunteers that maintain blogs while overseas. This is promising and hopefully means that somehow or another I'll be able to keep everyone updated on things :)
• I can't tell you how unbelievably excited I am.
• I can't tell you how utterly terrified I am.

So over the next 6 weeks (or less than), I will be getting my life in order before departure, and seeing as many people that I love as possible. Previous Peace Corps history and experiences have shown that love, support, news, letters, and any form of contact from the homefront can mean the difference between a great two years, or a lonely two years.

I'll keep updating before I go as I get more information about addresses and things. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has helped me through this process! I couldn't have done it without you :)

Missing everyone already,

Shub :)