The Peace Corp

As of now I am officially accepted into the Peace Corp! On August 13th I will be leaving for the Philippines.
The Philippines are an island consisting of over 7000 islands, although most populations reside on the largest islands. Language of the Filipinos is Tagalog which is related to the languages of Indonesia and Malaysia. The Philippines has an interesting past in that it was colonized by the Spanish and then transferred to America after the Spanish-American War. There was initial resistance, but by 1913 most of the fighting was over. Starting in 1935 America started giving the country more autonomy until 1946, when the country was made independent. Because of this the country has a rich blend of cultures, which should make for an interesting comparison to Singapore.

My path to the Peace Corp has also been a long process. Last summer I started thinking about what I wanted to do post-UNC. I knew that travel and service were very important things for me. During my time at UNC I had a great time, but was so focused on my own experience I did little to help others. Service has always been important to me and so I started looking into the Peace Corp. The more I read about the service the more I really wanted to do it.

First, all applicants fill out a very extensive on-line application that took me about a month to get fully completed. After that I had an interview with a recruiter to basically make sure that I was worth their time. Then I got medically cleared, which meant several doctors appointments, shots, tests, and the removal of my wisdom teeth! This whole process started in August and I just found out where I am going this last week. Needless to say, the turn around is fairly slow, but I think the benefits will certainly be worth the effort.

So that's a little bit of information for now, there's certainly more to come. Thanks for stopping by!