It's on Facebook...so it's official.

I'm an official volunteer!! Whoo!! So pumped! I was a little worried about having stipulations on my swearing in for service but I did a lot better on my language assessment than last time so no complications. Not that it matters anyway haha, here we go KKG and !Khu!! Swearing in was actually an interesting day...I had food poisoning! I threw up before the ceremony haha, and of course am sitting in the front row. Nothing like being super pale with food poisoning sitting in the front row while on national television trying not to run out throwing up. Feeling much better today so hopefully I'll be back at 100% tomorrow or sometime soon.

The actual ceremony was nice. A bunch of speeches, us giving a pledge, a couple more speeches then done! Afterwards a bunch of people went hiking which I am SOOOOO bummed that I missed out. I felt better later in the evening so I met up with some people and just hung out for a few hours before heading back home. Finished my last little bit of packing and got ready to leave super early in the morning, well, was ready about 6am, not super early, but still early.

Right now I'm in the kombie (van) on the way to y permanent site again! Except this time I'm moving there!! I actually can't remember where my room key is haha, so hopefully I'll find it in all my luggage when I start to unpack. I have so much stuff...my duffel bag is packed, same with my hiking bag, backpack definitely isn't light and the decently sized storage trunk they gave us is PACKED (albeit with all the freaking papers and books they gave us).

Kim titled her recent blog entry "Leaving America" which I felt was interesting. Even though we've been here for nearly two months, service hasn't started for us. And really, the next 6 weeks won't be nitty gritty work. It'll be planning for the school year, learning a new language, assessing my community, etc. at the end of Nov. we're heading back to the capital for a few more weeks of training. After that, hopefully some vacation time THEN the school year (and service) start. At least that's what I'm thinking. I definitely want to get work done but I fee it might work out better if I spend the next 6 weeks in preparation for the following two years. From what it sounds like, and if I get into everything I want, I might actually be very busy during the school year outside of the classroom.

I'll be trying to get on a couple committees so that will definitely keep me busy and then there are the secondary projects that we're supposed to be doing within our community. I don't have too many ideas yet but there are a couple thoughts floating around in my head that I would like to try and put into action. In some aspects I have some solid resources but in others I'll be starting from scratch.. The toughest part, I'm told, is motivating people and getting them to do their own work. Our projects are meant to be sustainable projects. The aim of Peace Corps is to help the host country develop on their own, not build a crutch for them to stand on.

I think this will be a very nice idea for me to reflect on in my life and try to implement here. How many times have we just fixed something for others and not enabled them to help themselves in the future? I've done it a lot and I know a lot of people have done it for me. The thing is are we really helping them or hurting them? But I would say it is human nature (for most people) to take whatever road is easiest. If I have the means to do something with minimal effort, why would I put a lot into it? I think it was Joseph Conrad that said "I don't like work, no one does. But I like what lies within it, the chance to find yourself" or soemthing like that, I could've totally butchered it. It's not our destination that matters but the lessons we learn on the journey getting there.

I think that may be a big problem with a large portion of society. Many people haven't done enough work and don't know who they really are. I haven't led a hard life but I also know many people have it much easier than I do. Maybe I'm a bit behind the curve but it's taken me 24 years to get proactive and agressive on who I am and what I want to accomplish in life. And not just what I want to accomplish but what I want to define my life by. One of the tips I heard somewhere was to make a mission statement for your life (no, I do not have one). I think this is a great idea and I think I've tried it before but never got anything concrete. One of my problems is that I'm always all over the place, maybe because I never really knew who I was or what I wanted out of life. I feel I've been very successful though recently in becomig the person who I want to be and accomplishing what I want to accomplish. Maybe I'll give it another shot at the mission statement but I feel even that would change as I mature through my two years here. I have made a list of life goals though, easier because I can always add and rearrange it to my liking. Something to think about, if you could define your life what would you say?