Staging in Philadelphia

Today was Day 1 of Staging.

At noon, we registered with the lady and gentleman that provided our orientation for the day. A second gentleman was also there as a member of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA), a non-governmental organization that provides services for current and returned volunteers. He introduced himself and the organization. He then revealed that he was going to "pull an Oprah" and give us all a Google Nexus 7 tablet. Ooo I was so excited! I thought maybe this was just a generous gift from the National Peace Corps Association. Nope. Based on a passionate Peace Corps volunteer's efforts, Google donated 1,000 tablets to the NPCA and the association chose us as one of the groups that they felt would best be able to use the services offered by the tablet during service. NPCA, I won't let you down!! I brought my laptop for skyping/blogging/emailing and my smartphone for music, but I'm excited to have a third device that will have a longer battery life than my laptop.

NPCA also releases a quarterly magazine as seen here

Staging mostly consists of welcome activities and an overview of most questions that future volunteers have. We did ice breakers, we did personal reflection, we performed scenarios (my team did a rap...ya we're so cool), etc. It wasn't super intense at all, which was great!

There are 31 volunteers in my staging group and we are all education volunteers. Most of us will be teaching junior high English, math or science. There are a few who will be teaching preschool. Everyone is SUPER nice and personable, which is fantastic considering we'll be the only Americans around each other for the next two years. We're all nervous, but totally excited! I'll be sure to post pictures of us as we start to get to know each other better during training.

Tomorrow is Day 2 of Staging.

Tomorrow we take a bus from Philadelphia to New York JFK. Then we wait in the airport for a large sum of hours until our flight around 6pm EST. I volunteered to be one of the group leaders, which means I will simply do a headcount and be aware of the people in my small group from the hotel through landing in Burkina Faso. That's a small task compared to chaperoning 25 high schoolers and their parents through London last New Year's.

Day 3 of Staging 

Friday, we land in Belgium for a four hour layover. Then, we land in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Wah-gah-doo-goo, the capital) that evening and immediately will receive medical interviews to start our malarial prophylaxis.

Peace Corps Packing for West Africa

What do you pack when you'll be living in Burkina Faso for 2+ years? For curious family, friends and future volunteers, here's my list!

2 large bags to check and a backpack and bookbag to carry on

• Clothing
• Under
• 15 underwear
• 2 bras
• 3 sports bras
• 6 moisture-wicking running socks
• Tops
• 2 t-shirts (Target v-neck short-sleeve)
• 2 synthetic dry-fit running tops
• 1 racerback tank
• 3 business casual tops
• Bottoms (nothing above the knee)
• 2 pairs of business casual pants  (Nike Golf Dri-fit)
• 1 pair capri pants
• 1 pair of leggings
• 1+ pairs long spandex
• 2 short spandex
• 2 maxi or knee-length skirts
• 2 pair of shorts - strictly for home
• Layers
• 1 sweatshirt
• 1 light jacket
• 1 Nike Lightweight rain-resistant jacket
• Miscellaneous
• 2 swimsuits
• 2 belts
• Vacation and going-out clothes
• sunglasses
• Shoes
• 1 pair black flats
• 2 pairs of running shoes (Adidas Glide Boost, Saucony Ride 6)
• 1 pair of flip flops (Olukai)
• 1 pair of hiking sandals (Merrell Agave 2 Lavish)
• Luggage
• 1 rolling suitcase
• 1 mini backpack
• 1 hiking backpack (The North Face Casimir 36)
• 1 large duffle bag
• 1 messenger bag
• 1 crossbody small purse
• Electronics
• 1 Lenovo Ideapad S210 Touch - 11.6-in, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
• 1 Nook (loaded with books)
• 1 LG Optimus F3 (unlocked smartphone + mp3)
• 1 Nikon Coolpix 20.1 megapixels camera (point and shoot)
• 1 Thunderbolt Magnum Solar - solar power pack (recharges mobile devices)
• 1 Kinivo ZX100 mini portable speaker with rechargeable battery
• 1 MAXAH Surge protector all in one international wall charger
• 1 America surge-protecting power strip
• 4 AAA and 2 AA Eneloop (NiMH non-alkaline) rechargeable batteries and usb charger
• 1 windup flashlight
• 2-pack Costco brand headlamps
• Home Items
• 1 Pillow
• 1 twin sheet set
• 1 bug hut  http://www.rei.com/product/777772/rei-bug-hut-pro-2-tent

• 2 water bottles - thermos & bobble
• 1 travel mug
• 1 corkscrew/bottle opener
• 1 vegetable peeler
• 1 chef’s knife
• 1 can opener
• 1 spatula
• 2 mini rubber spatulas
• 1 set measuring cups
• 1 set eating utensils
• 1 French press
• 1 roll duck tape
• 1 pair scissors
• 1 box ear plugs
• 3 blank journals 
• 2 sets of stationery
• 1 set bungee cords
• 50 clothes pins
• Food/Drinks

• 1.5 Tubs (80 servings each) Vitalyte electrolyte replacement
• 1 set of instant coffee (Starbucks Via)
• 1 pack Yogi tea
• 1 Tub cinnamon (Costco size)
• 8 varied condiment/sauce packets
• non-perishable snacks
• Toiletries
• Hair
• 20 Hair ties
• 8 Headbands
• 20 Bobby pins
• 1 Comb
• 1  2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioner - Costco size
• 1 Hairspray (non-aerosol)
• 1 Hair serum (anti-frizz)
• Face
• 2 bottles exfoliating face scrub
• 2 Aveeno face mosturizers with 15 spf
• 1 small mirror
• 1 make-up remover wipes
• 1 compact make-up
• 13 Chapsticks - Costco pack
• Teeth
• 8 Oral-B toothbrushes (soft) - Costco pack
• 2-4 Colgate Total toothpaste tubes
• 1 Floss (Peace Corps provides floss)
• Meds
• Zyrtec
• Mucinex D
• Benadryl
• AZO
• Tums - Costco pack
• Ibuprofin
• Vitamin B Complex - Costco bottle
• Cough Syrup
• Miscellaneous
• 6 Schick Hydrosilk razors
• 4 Secret pH-balanced deodorant
• 1 Tweezers
• 1 Nail care kit
• 1 Sewing kit

• 2-3 Nail polish - painting nails will quickly gain you friends
• 1 Tampax Pearl Tampons - Costco pack
• 1 Aloe vera gel bottle
• 1 Hand sanitizer
• 1 Baby wipes

Let's Be Pen Pals!

I officially have my mailing address! Letters can take 3-4 weeks to arrive, so I'd love if you'd start sending them now!

Please checkout the "How To Send Mail" tab at the top of my blog to see more detailed information about how and where to send letters.

"Families can provide enormous support to trainees during this time by writing often. Having left their old friends behind, trainees need the support of loved ones more than ever. Indeed, when word gets around a training site that the mail has just arrived (usually forwarded from the Peace Corps office in the country’s capital), trainees converge from everywhere—the sick suddenly feel better, the weary have energy, and the strong, silent types melt along with everyone else."

12 days until I depart for Philadelphia from the Bay Area! 2 days left in San Diego!

4 weeks to go!

I depart California in 28 days, so that means I finally received my travel itinerary! Yes, I am SO excited! Yes, the nerves are starting to kick in. But mostly I am STOKED!! :)

The Peace Corps roller coaster begins...

Itinerary

Tuesday, June 3: Depart SFO in the morning and arrive in Philadelphia in the evening.

Wednesday, June 4: Staging seminars and meetings from noon-7pm.

Thursday, June 5: Bus from Philly to New York JFK. Red-eye flight from JFK to Brussels, Belgium.

Friday, June 6: Fly from Brussels, Belgium to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (pronounced wa-gah-doo-goo).

17 days left in San Diego

Dearest friends, I am only in San Diego for 17 more days! If you follow me on Facebook, I am sure you've seen all of the things I have been doing, from enjoying authentic Mexican food in Old Town to geeking out at Wonder Con in Anaheim, to visiting the Happiest Place on Earth. The next two weeks, there will be lots of lunches and dinners and hanging out. See you soon!

May the Fourth in Disneyland.

Thank you again for following my journey! Oh, and May the Fourth be with you!

Official Medical Clearance Achieved!

Hallelujah! This means that I no longer have any more Peace Corps tasks to complete before my June 4 departure. Today is the 7-week mark!

Please add me on Instagram! @peacecorpskathleen

After 13 months of paperwork, you'd be jumping too!

TL;DR (too long; didn't read): Peace Corps Medical Process and story of when I received my invitation.

Medical History Form: 

13 months ago, immediately upon submission of my Peace Corps application, I had to fill out this legendary medical history form. You thought filling out the medical history update form at the doctor's office was bad? Each time you click "yes" to having a history of the said illness, you open a can of worms to a whole other flurry of specific questions.

Examples of the medical history form.

• Allergy
• I have an allergic reaction to 1+ of the following: (long list of allergies). Oh boy, here we go.
• Yes. Seasonal Allergy (Pollen, Trees, etc.)
• Yes. I have/had symptoms to this condition (List of symptoms, date of last occurrence, frequency, ongoing or not and severity)
• Yes. I require medication for said symptoms (med name, dosage).
• Personal statement about how this will not impact my ability to serve 27 months with minimal access to western medicine.
• Gastroenterology
• Yes. I am able to tolerate lactose. Yes. I am able to tolerate gluten. What if I had said no?

This continued for every body system.

Pre-Medical Clearance: 

11 months ago, upon receipt of my nomination for science education from the San Diego region, I was contacted by the Medical Applicant Portal (MAP) to complete tasks for my medical clearance. For e v e r y body system in which I had seen a doctor in the past 2 years, I had to contact that physician and upload the documentation to MAP. So that meant my pediatrician and allergist in my hometown and my current physician and neurologist (due to a series of migraines in 2012) in San Diego. Needless to say, I got the documents and received my pre-medical clearance on the last day of July.

Once the nurse pre-cleared me, my application was then sent to the placement office in Washington DC. At that point, the placement people (nice alliteration, huh?) look at my nomination and qualifications and place me in the country and assignment that they deem I will be the most successful. And success is mostly measured by my ability to follow the core expectations. If I can follow those, I have the flexibility and open mind to make a difference.

The core expectations were brought up in every interview and all paperwork.

Invitation: 

4 months ago, after 5 months of absolutely no correspondence whatsoever from Peace Corps, I received an onslaught of emails. Don't get me wrong, the emails were all great, but anytime you receive multiple emails from the same sender, you have a moment of brief panic. Or maybe that's just me. But I let the adrenaline flow right on in, took a deep breath and opened the email entitled, "Peace Corps - Invitation!".

Burkina Faso - Junior High Science Education - June 4, 2014

What's the first thing I did? I looked up the country's location on Google Maps. Then I looked it up on Wikipedia. Then I skimmed through the 58-page Welcome Book attached to the invite email. What did I absorb other than that I would be speaking French? Absolutely nothing. Why? Have you ever tried reading detailed information after receiving a burst of adrenaline? The last time I'd produced that much adrenaline was during the CCAA Track and Field Championships in May. But I sprinted it off. In fact, I ran one of my best times in my career. But, you're talking to a cognitive science and neuroscience major, so let's get into a little more detail for a second. 

• In those fight or flight situations, the sympathetic nervous system sends out a burst of epinephrine, aka adrenaline. At this point, the body ignores all other minor systems in order to let you survive (You have to use the restroom? You just ate a big sandwich? Well, you no longer have to pee and don't worry, you'll digest the sandwich later when you're safe.). However, the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates those autonomic functions, doesn't really work as an antagonist. So, when I realize that I received my dream placement, it isn't as simple as mentally telling my body to calm down (or ctfd as my friends and I so eloquently say). Nope, the parasympathetic system is just going to wait for the storm to pass. It's helpful in athletics and ya know, saving your life. But, it's not so helpful when you're sitting in a desk chair staring at a computer screen. Awesome. TL;DR: Science. Adrenaline takes a while to be eliminated from the system, so that's why I didn't absorb what I read.

Final Medical Clearance:

This is the point when most volunteers get nervous. Luckily, I had 3 months to complete all of the medical tasks. This meant immunization records and a doctor's note from my pediatric office that I had chicken pox as a child, two dental cleanings and two fillings and a filling correction since I hadn't seen the dentist in over a year (that's what I get), a prescription update on my glasses (I got transitions so I can see well when I'm biking during service) and a full physical exam. I also had to get the yellow fever immunization and immunization updates for polio and tetanus. Good thing I have no problems with needles!

Yellow fever. My boyfriend is Thai...get it? I thought it was funny...

Clearance Issues:

The only issue I had with my clearance was that my creatinine levels were too high out of the healthy range. Why would this be? In my proactive brilliance, I scheduled my appointment 6 weeks in advance. Then I was not-so-brilliant and made a last-minute trip with my boyfriend to see our favorite artist, Zedd, in Vegas. Well, I'd never been to Vegas post-21, so I was in for a treat. When I looked up what can affect creatinine levels, of course after reading that I probably have high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney failure (thanks WebMD, you never let me down!), I realized that I did everything I shouldn't do before that test. I ate excessive amounts of unhealthy meats (worth it...Vegas buffets are unrivaled), I was dehydrated (no excuse) and I drank diuretics (worth it...I love my coffee). 

Solution:

Two weeks ago, MAP told me that I needed to get a re-test of my serum creatinine. Just to be sure everything turned out alright, I went almost entirely vegan for two days. Talk about torture. I eat some kind of meat (mmm... bacon) almost everyday, I eat a greek yogurt every day and I drink coffee everyday. But, Peace Corps service is way higher on my priority list than what I eat. So, I sucked it up. 

I grabbed the wrong juice. This was liquid death.

A small band-aid would've worked, too...

I got the blood results back and I was .04 below the highest allowable value. Phew! My Peace Corps nurse cleared me for service and told me to be nice to my kidneys and stay hydrated. I shall!

TL;DR: Peace Corps Medical Process and story of when I received my invitation.

9 weeks to go!!

On June 4, I leave to live in Burkina Faso for 2+ years.

Picture included in the Welcome Book I received.

So what does this mean? I muscled my way through Rosetta Stone exercises in UCSD's Language Lab. I watched all three seasons of Game of Thrones with French subtitles, which was totally awesome. But more recently, I have been watching Disney's Frozen, in French, on repeat.

Disney did such a great job with the French adaptation!

What do I still have left to do? A lot of hanging out with friends in San Diego for 6 more weeks before I head back to NorCal. Let's hang out!! I'm going to organize a SoCal get-together, so stay tuned.

I also have packing left to do. Yikes. I have consolidated the list of items Peace Corps recommends and I've added items recommended by current Burkina Faso volunteers.  My packing list is a whopping 3.5 pages on Google Docs. I get to bring 2 checked bags that are less than 50 lbs each. I also get to bring a carry-on and backpack. Sounds like a lot of space, but when you're packing for two years, it gets slightly overwhelming for an indecisive person. And I'm a light packer. So... I'll let you know how that goes. I'll post my packing list closer to departure.

Please check out the rest of my blog (About Me, FAQs, etc) and let me know what you think. This is my first time exploring the blog world, so I have much to learn and appreciate your feedback!

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10 weeks to go!

I can't believe it! By the time I leave, this will have been a 15-month process. I applied, interviewed, waited, got nominated, got background checks, got pre-medically cleared, got invited, got immunizations and here I am, awaiting my final medical clearance and itinerary for departure. More info is soon to come!