I made it in!

Peace Corps has always been something I have been interested in. I went to my first Peace Corps informational meeting when I was 12. Then I was diagnosed with Epilepsy and thinking for sure they wouldn’t let me in, Peace Corps was forgotten. During my senior year of College, I started to plan my life after graduation. However, I kept running into the same problem, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Did I want to go into teaching, ASL interpreting, or just take a year off? My dream of serving in the Peace Corps kept coming up. But not knowing if they would accept me, I pushed it back down. Graduation was drawing closer and closer and my stress levels were rising. Then one day, I decided to forget everything I was worried about and just focus on what I wanted. I applied for the Peace Corps. So what if they didn’t accept me with the epilepsy. I was at least going to try. I knew I could do it and this was something I had wanted to do since I was 12.

So after…
a 29 page paper application (due to my procrastinating, took 2 months to finish)
250 Question Health Survey
Personal interview
Finger prints
Physical
Blood tests
X-rays
EEGS
Psychiatric screening
Numerous trips to Truckee (where my Doctors were)
And a year of torturous waiting….
On November 1st, 2009 I am headed to Kenya!

Some basic facts about Kenya:
The Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya, the 2nd highest peak in Africa. The country is in Eastern Africa, lying along the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Somalia (NE), Uganda (W), Ethiopia (N), Tanzania (S), and Sudan (NW). The capitol of Kenya is Nairobi with a population of 3 million people. Kenya’s population as a whole is about 38 million people. Kenya itself is a diverse country with many religions and cultures. The main religion is Protestant, followed by Roman Catholic and Islam. The spoken language is Swahili ( which I will be learning) and English. However, in some parts, different tribes have their own language.

Well that’s all for now. I look forward to sharing my adventures with you.

Kwa heri (goodbye),
Danielle