The Adventure Begins................

Well, this is the start of our adventure.....or, to be correct, the start of our blog about our adventure. Lisa and I applied to become Peace Corps volunteers in the spring of 2006, and after completing the extensive application process and having our interviews in NYC we were nominated in August to be Peace Corps volunteers in Jordan, departing in July 2007. We quickly learned all the internet had to offer concerning Jordan, spoke with former PCV's who served there and began following the blogs of other PCV's currently there. We also began the laborious process of obtaining our dental and medical clearances, which was much more involved than one would expect. That process was completed only in early April 2007, following which we were contacted by our placement officer from the Peace Corps and offered an alternative placement option. It involved teaching American culture to English speaking students at the university level in an unnamed city in China. We were excited and readily accepted the alternative placement. However, shortly thereafter, we were again contacted by our placement officer who indicated that because of my prior military service (which , in actuality, consisted of about 15 minutes in ROTC 35 years ago) we could not obtain the necessary visa to teach in China. Back to the drawing boards. A few days later though, we were invited to serve in Georgia, starting in June 2007. My placement is to be as one of five Business Development volunteers, in the first year of a business development program in Georgia. Lisa will be teaching English at the secondary level. We have been told by other PCV's who are there now that we are lucky. Because of my placement, we are more likely to be living in a city environment than in a village in the country, and that increases the likelihood that we will have amenities such as hot water available to us! So far so good!