Uganda is a beautiful country; nearly perfect weather, lush vegetation, kind people, fascinating but troubled history, interesting cultures. This is a place I could live for a hundred years and still have much to learn, more work to do and never find myself bored. I now live in a town called Jinja that sits at the [...]

I know it has been a while since I have written, but so much has happened it has been difficult to write.  Sooo I will write this in 3 entrees- the oldest is at the bottom…so start from the bottom up!

While I was in the air, the situation in Madagascar began to worsen. When I arrived at the Peace Corps office, the Malagasy staff had been sent home for the day for their own safety and the few people in the office had only bad news. Less than 24 hours after arriving in Tana, the [...]

On January 4 two other PCVs came to Antsohihy on their way home from vacation and to stay with me for the night. Kateri, Molly and myself decided to go out for dinner in town and got caught in the rain. We were enjoying ourselves, so we just slowed our pace and didn’t head back [...]

After swearing-in and becoming an official Peace Corps Volunteer, I hopped in a four-wheel drive with Doda (the PC driver, pronounced Dude-ah), Steve (the Country Director), and two other PCVs heading to their sites (Liz and Deres). We dropped off Deres first after swinging through Mahajunga and getting a very small glimpse of the beautiful [...]

Everyone has been wonderful about sending letters. Kristy- you are incredible. I am so grateful for all of your support and love; it really helps me push through the bad days. I also got a really sweet letter from a very sweet girl last week! Thank you for thinking of me Bella! I hope that school [...]

ITS HOT! Okay, let me explain…I visited my site last week and will be moving into my house in Antsohihy on December 12.  Summer is just beginning here in Madagascar which means I experienced just a taste of how hot it will become in my town.  The town is on the larger end (160.000) but it [...]

Hello all! I have now officially completed 5 weeks of training- only 26 more months of service to go. Oddly that number seems dramatically smaller… In 2 weeks I will be going on my site visit! YAY!!! It will be a chance to meet my ‘counter part’ (the Malagasy individual with whom I will be working most [...]

Last Friday we received information on our Peace Corps site assignment. I will be in a large “banking town” in the northwest region of the country called Antsohihy (pronounced Ah-n-swee). “Banking town” is a Peace Corps term referring to a larger town with a bank, post office, and electricity that volunteers in smaller surrounding towns go [...]

After another long day at the airport and a seven hour delay, we arrived in Antananarivo at 9:30 last night! Despite several failed attempts to pick us up from the airport, there was quite a crowd to greet us at customs- the country director and incountry hosts, current volunteers and several vans. Surprisingly all of our [...]

On Sept. 30th, the 19 other Madagascar Volunteers and myself were put on a bus and driven from our hotel in Philadelphia to JFK airport in New York. One volunteer was holding onto our passports and we had tickets to get us to Jo’burg, South Africa. (Our Madagascar Air tickets were electronic tickets that we would get [...]

Hello Everyone! I have less than a week until my departure to Madagascar and far too much to do! One of the things on my list is to be sure that everyone has access to my contact information incase they are so inclined to write/visit/or just stay updated! This website will be the best place to [...]

On June 10 I accepted my Peace Corps invitation to Madagascar departing in the fall.  On September 28, 2008 I will be going to ’staging’ (in Philadelphia) for a 2-3 day orientation where I will receive all of my shots, my Peace Corps passport, and a ‘if you are going to quit-then quit now!’ speech.  [...]