Navigating the Peace Corps

Today's the day! I just arrived to Miami where I'll soon meet up with my fellow volunteers and the Peace Corps coordinators that I've been working with to this point.  As I finish my time in South Carolina, I have been thinking of how I got to this point in the Peace Corps process.

Overall, the process has been about a one year process.  I began the long application last summer which eventually lead to an interview in Atlanta.  I was originally nominated to do health work in Guatemala.  For those that don't know, being nominated didn't actually mean I was accepted into the Peace Corps.  It is possible for a nomination to change (as was obviously the case for me).  After being nominated, there wasn't much to do except wait around for an invitation.

Around early February, I was beginning to get antsy because I hadn't heard from the Peace Corps in about a month.  This was the same time that I had gotten three days out of school because of snow.  During one of the snow days, I was sitting around playing Mario Kart with a friend and I got a call from DC.  On the other end, the woman asked if I would be willing to leave a week earlier than I had intended to and take a health position in Belize.  Obviously, I was ecstatic and said I would take it!  Three days later, I got my official invitation to Belize.

Since that time, I've been working on required paperwork, orientations, and readings.  It's been a long, and at times stressful, process, especially with my senior design project that was going on last semester.  The Peace Corps has recently begun using email, so instead of receiving a packet with everything that I need to complete, I've received about 30 emails all telling me different things I need to get done.  I think that added a little to my stress level.

Other than that, the process isn't terrible.  It is long, and at times requires a lot of patience, but really it's just preparation for the Peace Corps service. One of the main things that has been preached to me regarding my service is patience.  There are many times when I'll be frustrated and feel like I'm not having the impact that I want to have, but as long as I remain patient, I'm setting myself up for success.  I also received some words of wisdom from one of my friends that is a former PCV: focus on the individual.  If I go in wanting to have an impact on an entire village, then I may get discouraged when only six people come to a health fair, but if I can have a large impact on one of those individuals, then I'm planting the seed for success after I'm gone.  That, to me, would be a success.

On a different note, outside of finalizing my PC work, I've been really busy traveling, as you can see from previous posts.  This time, the trip was to St. Louis, the Mecca for the Grant family.  My grandma was raised there and my dad was born there.  I've grown up a Cardinal fan, so it was great to finally make it out to the gateway to the West.

On our trip into the city (Father's Day) we stopped by Belleville to see my grandpa's grave.  When we arrived, we weren't prepared for the size of the cemetery, and having no idea where the tomb was, we began to search.  We searched for about an hour and a half to no avail.  We decided to give up and finish our trip into the city.  We would stop by again on the way our way out of town once we had contacted someone about the location of the tomb.  As we drove out, we noticed a deer in one of the plots, so we stopped the car and did one last look around the area.  After about five minutes without finding it, we decided to just give up when, on the way back to the car, we found the grave! It was a really cool moment that wouldn't have happened had we not seen that deer.  I was really happy that my dad could spend Father's Day with his dad and that I could spend time with him.

After we had arrived in St. Louis, we just spent time being tourists, spending most of the our time at the ball park and Ballpark Village.  It was great to finally be in the majority when at a Cardinal's game.  We went to four different games.  Currently, the Cards are on a pretty hot streak, winning 8 of there last 11.  Unfortunately, three of the four games were the three losses.  Not great luck, but we still had a pretty good time, especially during the win.

Ballpark Village

Outside of the game, we went and saw the Gateway Arch, which I later found out was the tallest man-made monument in the US (while we're on fun facts, I also learned that hotdogs, hamburgers, and peanut butter were first introduced at the 1904 in St. Louis).  We got to go to the zoo which was awesome! There were loads of animals that I had never seen or even heard of before.  We also spent some time at City Park, where I learned that the fountains in St. Louis also qualify as public pools.  Near the end of our trip, we went to the City Museum only to find out, lo and behold, it is not actually a museum.  It's more like a system of tunnels where you try and go from point A to point B taking the most convoluted route possible.  It was like a Discovery Zone for adults and was so much fun!

That about sums it up.  For now, I'm going to wait around in the lobby of the hotel and mentally prepare myself for registration which begins at noon.  It has been a longtime dream of mine to be where I am today and it's finally here. It still seems unreal to me.  Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Belize.

Also, I tried to get as many email addresses as possible before I left, but I didn't get them all.  If you would like to email me, my email is daniel.grant.pcbz@gmail.com. I don't have a permanent address yet, but when I find it out, I'll let you all know.

I-95 Summer Tour

Going into the summer, my goal was to see as much of the US as possible, so I began making plans to go to Miami for a cruise and then to Philly the following weekend. The first trip along 95 was south to Miami.  A group of guys and I drove all the way from Charleston to Miami.  At first, we looked forward to every state border.  It wasn't too exiting, but it was at least something to look forward to.  During a nine hour drive, you need to create as many landmark destinations as possible to help the drive go by a little faster.  If you don't do that, you'll go crazy.  This game would have been great if there was more than one state between SC and FL.  After crossing the FL/GA border, the only way to countdown our trip was to look at signs and see how far we were from Miami.  The first sign we saw for Miami indicated we had some 323 miles to go before arriving to our destination... Despite that, the drive wasn't terrible. Before we knew it, we were there.

Miami was a lot nicer than I had anticipated.  We spent Sunday night there touring some of the city, and then on Monday we headed to the port.  I had never been on a cruise before, so I had no idea what I was doing.  I was just playing follow-the-leader.  We had a slight scare when we almost lost the group's boarding pass, but one of the guys was able to run it down before the wind blew it out of sight.  We went on a Carnival cruise, which I've since been told is on the lower end of cruise lines, but I thought it was incredible! There was a club, a casino, and a pool.  What more could we ask for?  The first night, we made friends (at least that's what we liked to think) with two of the waiters - Made and Jose - and requested them every night for the rest of the week.  By the last night, they practically had my Long Island iced tea waiting for me at the table.

Outside of the boat, we made stops in the Keys and Mexico.  Most of the time in the Keys was spent searching for a beach.  We never found one, but we did get to the southern most point of the continental US which was pretty awesome.  Cozumel was a completely different story.  As soon as we got off the boat, people were telling us where we could find a beach.  We found one that was cheap and had a bar, so we stayed there the rest of the day.  It was great!

Looking back on the cruise, I notice that I was pleasantly surprised with the experience.  Before leaving, I was worried that it was going to be full of pretentious people that wanted to spoil themselves, but afterward I realized that there were some people who just wanted to travel and see some of the world.  Yes, it was nice to spoil myself a little, but it was even cooler to stand out looking over the edge of the boat, watching the sun set while being entirely surrounded by water.  My first cruise was a great experience and something that I will never forget.

Just four days after getting back to Moncks Corner, I was heading north up 95 to Philly with Nicole to catch up with some of the FIMRC family that we hadn't seen in a while.  The boarder game was a lot more fun this time with all the states that we had to pass through to get there (I think it was something around six states and DC).  We stopped in Richmond on Thursday to stay with one of my close friends and finished up the trip to Philly the next morning.  

It was great to catch up with everyone that I haven't seen in a while as well as make some new friends.  We toured some of Old Town Philadelphia the first day and got to see the FIMRC headquarters.  On Saturday, we ate Pat's, and I tried my first ever real Philly cheese steak - kind of.  Luckily the person taking my order was nice and didn't mind that I was vegetarian and trying to order a steakless cheese steak as quickly as possible.  After that, we went to a Phillies game and got lucky enough to see the Phillies tie it up in the bottom of the ninth.  Around the twelfth inning, we were beginning to think that the game would never end. Unfortunately, the Phillies lost the game in fourteen.  Fortunately, the game only went fourteen innings. Other than the fact that we were there a little longer than we were anticipating and that the Phillies lost, it was a great time!

The next day, we had brunch and finished our tour of Old Philly before heading to Doylestown to hang out with my friend, Dana, and her family.  Despite the fact that we were exhausted, we had a blast.  I got to try water-ice for the first time.  For those of you that don't know what that is, imagine something slushier than Italian ice but not as slushy as a Sonic slushy.  It was delicious! The next morning, we were up early to grab a bagel and then head back to Charleston.  Overall, I thought Doylestown was an awesome city!  We had a pretty good drive despite the fact that I messed up at some point and had to pay a $33 toll.  It was a cash only toll, and the only cash that Nicole and I had was $1.  Luckily, I had $30 in quarters and the toll guy was nice enough to let us through.  Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful, eleven and a half hour drive.

To sum up the trip, I think Nicole said it best: "Super thankful for these friends and for a great weekend in Philly.  It's amazing how so many different people can be brought together by their common interest to make the world a better place.  Love you people, your hearts, and your friendships.  I can't wait until we get to be reunited again."  It was really awesome to think that I didn't know any of these people just four years ago and that common interests can form such a strong bond between people.  How many times do you get to have a discussion at a bar about the future of a nonprofit organization and its international sites and actually enjoy it?

Other than my recent I-95 travels, I've also been keeping up on Peace Corps work.  It's finally starting to all come together.  I just need to read up on a few things and do an online orientation.  After that, I'll be pretty much done with the Pre-Service forms (I hope).  On a completely different note, I recently finished a book called The Color of Water.  It was amazing!  It has been described as "a black man's tribute to his white mother."  It was awesome.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.  That's about all for now.  It's crazy to think that next time I'll be on here, I'll be within days of leaving for Belize if not already there.

Oh yeah, photo credit to Warren Snell and Abi Proctor