invitacion!

bienvenidos amigos!

welcome to Lexie's first blogging space ever! i've never been big in to bloggin'/tweeting/yada yada yada since no one would care how many times a day i checked youtube or had a sonic icecream sundae but this is for a good cause... i'm going in to the peace corps!

on wednesday July 15th i was formally invited to serve with the peace corps and received my country of service today (friday).... headed to Peru :) relief to be going to such a beautiful country that i have heard nothing but good things about!

i'm not gonna lie, when i saw that (202) area code from DC pop up on my cellphone my heart stopped because only one person would be calling me from there. help help help, AH! from there my placement officer congratulated me and i continued to hyperventilate in the parking lot at my office :) SHOCK. absolute shock of what was happening! i had only applied about 3 months prior to being accepted and then all of a sudden i was accepted?? they normally suggest applying over a year in advance to a leave date but for some crazy reason i was pushed through the process at record speed and here i stand... 6 weeks from leaving in september! i honestly didn't think i would be accepted... what skills do i even have to offer someone in a 3rd world country? well, apparently the recruiters, etc saw something in me they thought would benefit another culture... maybe they knew i would be able to introduce them to snickers bars.

after about 4 days of pure panic and tears i got my placement/assignment and seem to have calmed down slightly... maybe even a little bit excited for what's to come! every 5 minutes is a different emotion - excitement, aprehension, fear, uncertainty, curiosity and anything you can imagine.. it's exhausting! but it's time to get serious, packing lists must be made, goodbyes must be arranged - let the mental/physical preparation begin!

my official assignment is water and sanitation from Nov 2009 through Nov 2011 (not including the 3 month in-country training that i will leave for on Sept 9) in Peru! i won't know the community/village i will be in until the end of our training so who knows! it could be along the amazon river or could be in the mountains... but in either situation i'm pretty sure there will be no electricity, no running water and clay houses, yikes! guess i should start getting used to not showering huh? i'm going to be working with NGO's, schools, health posts etc to help design and construct water systems, landfills and latrines (yay? handling poo?) and teaching hygiene and water management. in any case, i'm definitely not going to be staring at a computer screen for 40 hours a week anymore... woo!

anywho, just for planning purposes, it's looking like i will be leaving my lovely home in Charleston, SC around August 17th (going away party on August 15th!!!) and then headin' up to DC to prepare and spend some time with my fam :)

99% sure i won't be having any internet access in my post over there but i will hopefully be able to hike/bike down to a town with internet so i can update this little page thing as much as possible and let you all know what i'm up to and my address for packages as soon as i get it ;) please send me your phone numbers/email addresses so i can hopefully call if i ever come across a payphone but don't hold your breath because i have a feeling that may be few and far between.

so just wanted to inform everyone of the news and let you all know i love y'all so much and will miss every last one of my best friends and family! i'll update as much as i can over the next few weeks as i find out more about my town/assignment!