29 days away from being 8,502 miles away

in ETHIOPIA! 

   Initially, I was preparing to leave for Honduras July 6, but due to a $25 million Peace Corps budget cut the Protected Areas Management program in Honduras lost funding for volunteers this year. I talked myself out of prolonged disappointment by considering the opportunity that existed once more. I would receive yet another blue envelope from the Peace Corps with exciting information I could jump up and down about (and believe me I did and I do).

My second invitation was in Mexico for "the most prestigious opportunity in natural resource management that the Peace Corps offered." Most of you may know that Mexico would have been a cozy fit for me for me.  In addition to the robust beauty Mexico's dramatic landscapes and diverse cultures, one of my dearest college friends, Valeria, lives there. The girl who has been inspiring me to embrace my inner Latina by learning to salsa dance, improving my language skills and eating spicy foods.

Valeria and me
2010 grads from WSU

Va Le is there attending medical school in Guadalajara (you bet your boots I'm proud of her!). In Mexico it only takes one contact  to open the floodgates for 100's of acquaintances. Va Le told me once that she was just 1 of 13 women in her family named "Valeria." In my family we only have about 13 women total, which includes 3rd cousins, and none of us share our grandmother's names! Undoubtedly, it would have been easy to race down to Mexico to serve as a PC volunteer in such an amazing location that includes instant friends and family. The only catch: it was an office job in an over-sized city in Central Mexico.

After much consternation I rejected the offer because I realized that my intentions as a volunteer were more social than professional. I want to be in a smaller town where I can know my neighbors well enough to celebrate holidays with them, lend a hand with a friends garden, watch a sunset from my front door and find a different definition of job besides a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday cubicle time card job. No Gracias!

In Latin America I was comforted knowing
             I could get home quickly in a family emergency
                 Risk of serious illnesses such as malaria or yellow fever are lower
                    The most hungry neighbor will be a mangy dog, and not an orphaned child
                       Expectations based on previous trips abroad will minimize the culture shock                                                                                           
                         I can communicate even if my Spanish is a bit rough

None of this holds true in Ethiopia, which is exactly why it is the best place that I didn't ever know I wanted to go. I will be completely out of my element without even enough general knowledge to make assumptions about what I will see, feel or do. I am a fish out of the water, a potato out of Idaho, an uncultured white girl headed to one of the oldest, richest and most proud African nations in the world...

                                                   How lucky am I?