It's Official

In June I applied.
In August I interviewed.
In October I completed a full medical review.
In December I was deemed medically qualified. (Phew!)
In February I finally got the big blue envelope.

I’ve been invited to serve in the Peace Corps beginning in May of this year! I’ll be stationed in Nicaragua working in the Rural Development Project.

Being the compulsive list-maker that I am, I have dedicated a page in my journal to each of the following topics:

• What I want to bring
• What I want to get rid of before I go
• What I want to buy before I go
• Things to send myself in a care package after 6 months in service
• Things to send myself in a care package after 1 year in service, and
• Things to worry about

Since it’s too early to really pack yet, I’ve been focusing on the last list. Here are the things I’ve found to worry about so far:

1. That I will not see a green vegetable for the next two plus years
2. That I will get fat eating five to six kinds of carbohydrates at every meal – potatoes, rice, beans, tortillas, bread, and fried plantains
3. That I will be bitten by a scorpion
4. That the anti-malarial medication will make me loco in the cabeza
5. That I will contract malaria anyway
6. That I will not be able to wear my contacts at all and will be stuck wearing glasses for the next two years. Or that I will try to wear contacts and will end up getting a freaky tropical eye infection
7. That I will become so frustrated by the whistles and catcalls that one day I will completely lose my cool and go ballistic on some poor Nico
8. That I will become so acculturated after two years that the reverse culture shock of coming back to the States will be worse than the adjustment to Nicaraguan life

Based on my reading of other PCV - that's Peace Corps Volunteer - blogs, all of these scenarios are likely. But I'm really excited anyway.