The adventure begins

I am leaving tomorrow to go to Miami for staging. This is the first step I will take on my road to adventure. hopefully I'll make it safe and sound without delay as Miami is under a tropical storm warning but i have a feeling i will be stuck in the airport for a long time.

I know some people might be curious as to how the whole process works so i will give a brief rundown as to what should happen. First let me begin by saying that i am not officially a volunteer. I can only be considered a volunteer if I successfully pass the training and swear in. Staging is the very first part of this process. It occurs in the United States and lasts about two days. During this time I will be introduced to the various policies and procedures of the peace corps and get to meet all the members of my training group for the first time.

After staging we leave for our host country to begin training. Training lasts about ten weeks and contains an intensive language component, technical skills, cultural, and safety components. For the first 3 weeks my whole training group will be in Santo Domingo, the Capital of the DR. During this time I will be living with a family there to expedite the integration process. The next portion of the training is the community based training, for about five weeks or so, all the volunteers from my sector will go to another community for addition training with more of a focus on technical skills that we will need for our job. I will be living with another family for the duration of the five weeks. Once that is done we are giving our community assignments and go there for about a week. After that we go back to the capital to finish up training and swear in. Usually 90% of the people pass training and become official volunteers. From what i hear it is a pretty hectic and demanding time, but well worth it. After training you are sent to your community where you will live and work for the next two years to figure it out for yourself. anyways i hope this clears up somethings. It should be interesting...please keep in touch, i would like to hear from people.

Wish Me Luck!