Kukurantumi

More news! After about the second week in country (Accra and elsewhere), we'll finish our 10 weeks of training in Kukurantumi, which happens to be about 2 hours from special, or the ocean. There goes my dream of becoming a Jack Johnson-like professional surfer turned songwriter during my free time in training on the coast in Accra. Oh well, might as well begin pursuing other dreams like: staying malaria free for the next 2+ years (heh), finding a good source of "okay" toilet paper and oh yeah, improving the overall health for some Ghanian's. During my final week in the states my body thought it would give a farewell by giving me an upper respiratory infection and double ear infection. Thanks body for your wonderful parting gift. Maybe this means that I won't be sick now for a very... very long time. We leave Tuesday morning bright and early to spend the next 2 days or so in Philadelphia before flying on a direct flight to Accra this will take ~12 hours. Hopefully my antibiotic has fully remedied my ears, otherwise I may have yet another reason to fear flying.

Have you already sent "I miss you" letters to us? If you were waiting for that magical moment, it's now :), as your letters will likley take 3 weeks to reach us, and by then we'll be a few weeks through training! Our address for training was posted in an earlier blog.

I already miss people (isn't that weird?). I haven't even left yet and I'm craving sno-cones, cheese curds and my mom's lefse. I haven't left yet and I'm missing work and all of my work friends, friends in Madison and friends from back home; I miss my family even more. Many people have told me that 2 years isn't very long and that it will fly by. I tend to agree. Kris and I will celebrate our 2nd anniversary on the 21st of June, I've been out of college for over 2 years and I worked for almost 2 years; it's hard to believe that the previous are true, it doesn't even seem as though I've blinked. Our time in Ghana will fly by, but so will so many events in your life that I will have missed. Keep me filled in, write me a letter, send me an email, or even a package, don't facebook me (as I doubt the internet access I will have will allow that much bandwidth), tell me what I'm missing out on so you don't have too much to tell me when I get back :)

I presume my next post will be from either in Philadelphia or somewhere in Ghana. I appreciate your good thoughts and prayers as Kris and I embark on this next chapter in our lives, hopefully you can enjoy a taste of it with us!

Update for the sake of it

Up until Tricia's post on Thursday we have been in need of an update. So here it is, in short version and long.

Short version: Basically, it feels like we lost the last 5 weeks. Poof. But we're making progress. At this point, if we can get things packed into bags and make the plane on time, I'll be happy.

Long version: With respect to packing our America stuff, we now have most things sold or at home, where our parents have been gracious enough to keep it while we are gone. Not that we don't have more to do. Oh no. But we're close, just some clothes washing and final packing and we're good. Also, shout out to those that helped load/unload the Uhaul yesterday. Because of you I could physically get out of bed this morning.

Thanks to all that came to our Madison party on Thursday. It's a paradox, really. So many of you are supportive of our endeavor, and yet have such great, supportive friends makes it hard to leave. So start being crappy friends already. Kidding, but you should know we appreciate you.

So I have this pack list for Ghana, in spreadsheet form (of course), complete with estimated weight and volume so I can meet my 80lb, 107in limits. Which is great, except that I haven't touched it in weeks. Also, I may have packed away items on that list. Ahhh!!! I think now that we are done moving stuff home the next big effort is to make sure I have everything on my pack list. May have to order a few things via rush shipping; we only have 22 days (!!!).

Looking forward, we have a wedding next weekend, then our home going-away party for family on the next weekend. By the 19th we will be in the land of no internet until we leave (besides the library or a coffee shop), so posts may be infrequent (ha, you're all used to that by now).

So that wasn't so long...I think I'm forgetting things. I'll have to update the update...later...sometime.

Tricia is trying to distract me (she only has one sock on...she's like a kid sometimes), so time to go.

Packing

I feel as though it's the end of an era, but I've really only been living the adult life for just under 2 years now. I ended my job at the UW hospital a week ago. Since then I've attended 2 potentially morally corruptible drug rep dinners (amazing dinners though, not to mention I had great company to roll my eyes with for both), attempted to learn Twi, made it to a few prenatal visits with some at home-birth midwives, made a lot of phone calls, changed my mailing addresses, and packed. We move out this Saturday then will live in the desolate apartment for another few days. Packing is defined per Webster's as 1. a bundle arranged for convenience in carrying especially on the back 2. a group or pile of related object. I beg to differ, I would define it as 1. finding things you thought/wished you had rid yourself of long ago 2. better done in company of a friend vs. your engineer/husband counterpart 3. the act of adding stress to an already stressful situation (i.e. moving) 4. using carcinogenic markers that give non-headache sufferers a headache to label the box of junk you've been suckered into keeping 5. the act of putting too many heavy things in a really big box then dislocating a vertebrae while trying to carry this heavy box down 2 flight of stairs. I really dislike packing, probably as close to hate on the dislike scale as I get. I also dislike labeling, although I understand its purpose. Enough ranting about packing, I'd better change my attitude as the same friend who come to drug rep dinners and carefully packs my breakable kitchen things for me is coming this afternoon to help me finish stashing my life-in-things into boxes.

June 1st is coming very soon, before I know it I will be unpacking the few things I have brought to Ghana to begin the next era of my life.

The Letters!

We finally got our invitation letters last Saturday!!! (March 27)

This means we are officially invited to join the Peace Corps. It also means we finally know exactly where we are going.

Here are the deets:

Ghana (sub-Saharan West Africa)
Staging: June 1
Training duration: 10 weeks

No surprises on our primary assignments; Tricia will be doing health/water sanitation and I will be teaching math. I did find out that I will be teaching "Junior High School" students, which means the equivalent of 6-8 grade in the US as far as age (I don't know where they are in curriculum - currently I'm thinking pre-algebra, algebra, possibly geometry (?) ).

So Ghana is exciting as a placement country. First off, for those concerned about safety, Ghana is one of the more stable and well-developed countries that Peace Corps is serves in Africa. So your babies will be just fine. 43% of people have electricity and cell phone coverage is widespread. We will likely be placed in the north where these indicators of civilization are less common, however. This is a trade-off; it means a fewer comforts for us, but this is exactly where the Peace Corps' development efforts are most needed.

While Ghana is nowhere near the Serengheti or Okavango plains famous for lion prides, giraffes, elephants, etc., the country is home to many of these animals and there are plenty of "safari"-type trips taken. Ghana is also home to a burgeoning eco-tourism industry.

That's all for now, we'll have more updates as we learn more.

I'll leave by saying "goodbye" in Twi, a language we will be learning during our training in Ghana...

Merek!

By the way, here's our mailing address for the 10 weeks we'll be in training:

Kris and Tricia Rasmussen PCT
Peace Corps/Ghana
P.O. Box 5796
Accra-North, Ghana
West Africa

March Madness

I think this title pretty much sums up the month of March for us. About the time of our last post, we were expecting our invites to come soon. Ok, I was expecting the invites soon (I think I even bet Tricia that we would have them the first week in March). Long story short, that didn’t happen. On February 26 we learned that our applications were in the last stage of review, which entailed being sent to our placement country for them to do a final review. We were told this should take about 7-10 business days. Commence operation "Wait." On March 11 (business day 9) we followed up with our placement officer to see what the status was. We were told that if a) we were placed, we would find out via postal mail, and b) if we were not placed they would call us to discuss other placement opportunities (this would involve a delayed leave date). Nothing new to us, we’ve been waiting for a while now. So again, we wait. On March 18 we asked again, as it was now up to 14 business days. We learned that an in-country officer had been “out of the office,” which had pushed the timeline out beyond 10 business days. We also learned that we were not the only couple in the same situation – there were 8 others also experiencing the delay. So good to know we’re not in this alone. But waiting is waiting, whether you’re in a group of two or two million. And then, on March 24, an email. More specifically, an auto-generated email from the Peace Corps website. Now this caught us off-guard, having anticipated our next correspondence to arrive via postal mail. So we go to the website, log in, and voila: we’ve been officially invited! That’s right, WE GOT INVITED!!! Next question: what country? It doesn’t say. WTF. We need to wait until we get the physical letters. Ok, when will those arrive? The new information on the website says it was sent out March 24, so if it was sent by postal mail, then maybe 3 days (Saturday). However, with some sleuthing on PC applicant forums (which are filled with obsessed, neurotic people), apparently the invitation letters arrive via Fedex. (Side note: why is a government organization not using government mail?) So via Fedex we are guessing Friday. Less than 12 hours from when I am writing this. So here is the latest: • We have been officially invited to the Peace Corps • Our leave date is in “early June” • Our invitation letters are in the mail So it’s a “yay,” but not with capital letters. At least not yet. Stay tuned… Kris