An invitation to serve

I have finally received my invitation to serve (which is what has motivated me to start blogging)! And surprisingly, I did some amazing detective work because I was spot-on with my guess. I will be leaving to go to Cameroon in mid-September to work on forestry/agroforestry type projects. As I've been getting closer to the date, and since I'm done with school and in a brief stage of limbo/vacation/unemployment, I've been doing a bunch of research to figure out what, generally, the Peace Corps experience will be like. Some reading materials shift my outlook towards excitement about the adventures that lay ahead, while others make me annoyed about some of the experiences that are probably in my future.

A few guesses: I'm going to have a slight advantage over other volunteers because a) I'm not fresh outta college (re: not as green), b) I've had some work experience in my field (as in generally the field of forestry in the US), c) I've been to Africa before, d) As a social scientist, I love new cultures and I love figuring out language and place and people, and e) I've done a LOT of reading on Africa, forestry, women, and etc. for my MS. I may even find that I'm slightly older than most volunteers, which will be a different experience than when working on my masters when I was the youngest person.

I've been reading through my packet of information that is supposed to be mandatory reading, but it's more like reading all of the "terms and conditions" that come with signing up for a new credit card... I'm guessing that the "dealing with culture shock" booklet will be more appropriate reading material for the bathroom than fo-scheezy reading. I guess they have to cover their bases.

So I still need to accept my invitation, but I really don't think I could have been placed in a better country. Aside from that, I will have some great connections, as my college roommate studied abroad there and my undergrad has a study abroad program there. So, I'm going to have to do a little more reading, but I'm probably going to accept the invitation.