The Infamous Packing List...Pending Approval of Course

In just four days, I pack my bags and set out for Washington D.C. where I and approximately 40 other volunteers will get together and prepare ourselves mentally, and logistically for our journey to Sierra Leone. However lets be frank, at least I and probably most of my fellow Peace Corps colleagues, have had about a year and a half to do all the mental preparations for a experience as serious as this, then again; Is one ever ready to be a Peace Corps volunteer? From the stories I've read and the conversations I've had with past Peace Corps volunteers, the answer would at first appearances seem to be NO. But somehow that uncertainty, at least for me, makes me that more excited and anxious to get over there.

So what am I to do? Well the least I can do is make sure that my packing list is in order!

Let's review:

 An asterisk (*) signifies uncertainty over the number of the particular item I should bring 
 An (^) signifies uncertainty over whether I should bring the particular item

Clothing:
15 boxer briefs
8 under shirts*
6 ankle socks for running(*)
4 breathable T-shirts + one cycling shirt (*)
1 light Columbia water-resistant windbreaker
2 ties*
2 business casual khaki pants
2 long-sleeve button-down dress-shirts
1 pair dress pants
1 pair swimming trunks
3 sets of traditional African clothing (Tailor-made during my time in Nigeria)
2 long-sleeve shirts/sweatshirts
3-4 short-sleeved button up shirts(*)
2 pairs comfortable zip-off/hiking pants
2 pairs jean shorts(*)
1-2 pairs of jeans(*)
2 pairs athletic shorts
1 pair Merrell hiking sandals
1 pair Chaco sandals
1 pair Keen sandals
1 pair flip-flops
1 pair running or track shoes (^)
2 sun hats
2 belts(*)
4 bandanas
1 Kente cloth (Courtesy of Reimi)
2 African kofia hats (Red and black)

Electronics:
Bicycle lights
Mini travel alarm clock
Digital watch
8GB USB flash-drive
Wall battery AA/AAA charger
16 rechargeable AA batteries
8 rechargeable AAA batteries
Headlamp (Petzl E89 Tactikka XP)
Digital Camera
Laptop
Solar calculator
Grundig G6 Aviator shortwave radio
Electric hair clippers (^)
Voltage Converter (^)
Small travel speakers (^)

Toiletries:
3 tubes toothpaste + 1 travel size
Tweezers
4 toothbrushes
4 packs floss
1 bottle mouthwash + 1 travel size
Hairbrush
Small comb
Large tube vaseline
Travel size vaseline
2-4 sticks deodorant + 1 travel size(*)
Travel toothbrush holder
1 large hand sanitizer bottle
3 travel size hand sanitizers bottles
Razors(^)
Small travel mirror (^)

Miscellaneous:
1 extra large Eastern Mountain Sports pack towel
2 pairs prescription eye glasses
1 pair sunglasses
1 Patagonia travel sling
Leatherman
1-2 stainless steel water bottle
8x42 Stokes Talon binoculars (An absolute must have for birding)
Columbia travel pillow
Regular size pillow
Tent (Eureka Backcountry 1 solo)
Dreamsack (Extra-Roomy opening)
Magnifying glass
3 Carabiners
Yoga mat (For camping!)
1-2 journals (*)
1 2010-2011 weekly planner
U.S. stamps
12 passport photos
Photos from home
Scissors
Sketchbook
Jump Rope
Yoga ball (^)....Probably not necessary?
Soccer ball (^)
Duct tape
Mini stapler
Pencils/Pens/white-out/erasers
Swimming goggles
Incense/incense holder(^)
Bicycle seat pack
Bicycle bell
2 TSA locks
Compass
Basic bicycle tools
Index cards
4 pack small notepads
National Geographic laminated world map

Books:
Birds of Western Africa
Bradt Guide to Sierra Leone
Oxford Pocket Dictionary
College level Biology textbook
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer
Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (To bulky!)(^)
The Slave Trade by Hugh Thomas (Could theoretically take me the whole two years to read this thing!)(^)
In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's botanical legacy in the Atlantic World by Judith Carney (^)


This list is pretty much set with the exception of the few particulars I've listed. To pack it all I have:

An Outdoor brand duffel bag (14in x 30in)
A two wheel suitcase (28in x 19in x 10in)
1 Timbuk2 medium Hemlock backpack (14.20in x 24.60in x 6.30in)

Of course the duffel bag is empty, but this is just to give you some perspective. I don't think this load is too unmanageable at all. I will check in the suitcase and the duffel bag. There are restrictions though. Combined, all checked in luggage can't exceed 80lbs. The heaviest bag can't exceed 50 lbs, and the combined external dimensions of my checked in bags can't exceed 107 inches. My checked in bags combined have an external dimension of 101 inches, just shy of 107 inch limit, and I'm pretty sure my suitcase won't exceed 50 lbs, if it does, I'll just transfer items to duffel bag to even things out.

I hope this helps anyone struggling with what to pack! I'll update the list once I'm finished evaluating what I need and don't need.

Cheers

Dental Clearance? And Other Tangibles

Hmm...So it would appear that I've FINALLY been granted the dental clearance that has caused me so much stress the last, oh say, two years. Truthfully, I shouldn't have put it off as long as I did, and truthfully, I probably should have taken care of it back when I had dental insurance at my old job over at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. I'm going to be in a measurable amount of debt for the foreseeable future to the parents...unfortunately. I would have had the money to take care of most of my dental expenses had I received my security deposit from my old apartment roommates in Hartsdale, NY. It was such a complicated situation and I don't feel like elaborating on it now, it will just make me angry all over again. BUT, if Susie and Frankie were truthful to me from the very beginning, and told me exactly where my security deposit was going, I wouldn't have paid it in or the monthly rent, in cash, like some idiot; and I probably would have done something more radical like withhold rent....Ha ha...Right. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

But back to my dental clearance. All they required me to do was a root canal on tooth #13 with a restoration with a full crown. I was hesitant to go the crown route back in February when I first began the treatment. A root canal is a fairly invasive procedure! They are done with the premise that there is extensive decay on or near nerves on the root of the tooth and the procedure is considered necessary to "save" the tooth. The only problem is I, the average individual has a different working definition of what constitutes a "tooth" when it comes to root canals. When I say "tooth", I'm thinking the shiny, pearly whites that I like to show off to all my friends when I'm in a good mood. But to a dentist, saving the tooth actually means saving the tooth root. This is a crucial difference because the root is actually what matters in preserving the over jaw structure of the mouth. You lose the root and you basically don't have a smile in the long run. I originally had the root canal done and restored it with filling which some people do. The only disadvantage is that it leaves your tooth susceptible to crack because you have a huge piece of filling wedged in the injured tooth and it compromises the way bite forces are distributed around the tooth. Needless to say, the Peace Corps was not going to accept that treatment plan so I had to go back and restore it with a crown (Porcelain) with requires a substantial amount of drilling away of the little amount that's left of the tooth. I completed that part of the procedure on Monday, the 26th of April and Fed-Ex'ed the X-rays and letters later that day, and just in the nick of time. My deadline for clearance was 2 May. So FINALLY, I'm done with my medical and dental work and I'm technically physically "fit" to serve, except for one small hitch, I've been informed that I need to be vaccinated against the H1N1 virus. SO CLOSE!!! But it shouldn't be a problem. It's funny though, around the time when H1N1 outbreaks were making the headlines, I deliberately refused to let myself get caught up in the hoopla and hysteria that was circulating. It's ironic that I'm now being required to be vaccinated. Better safe than sorry I suppose?

I can't believe that in less than five weeks, I'll be leaving behind the comfort and convenience of Western life for something that I have romanticized about in my own head. I think my heart skips a beat when I contemplate the reality and inevitability of this novel experience I'm about to engage in. This past Friday I booked my ticket to our two and a half day staging even in D.C. from 1-3 June. We will fly out for Freetown, Sierra Leone on 3 June. Our staging event is sort of like a crash course on things to expect, our conduct as a volunteer, and meeting the other volunteers who on the surface seem excited but the majority of which, I'm willing to bet, are scared shit-less, but that's OK. Our staging will be at the:

Holiday Inn Georgetown
2101 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20007

When we land in Freetown, there is going to be a "special celebration" at the State House with a lot of publicity to follow. I've stressed in my prior post just how significant our return is and there is a lot at stake! I was told that upon our arrival in Freetown, the Government of Sierra Leone will take our shirt sizes in order to make us traditional African garments. Luckily for me I own a few already that I plan on bringing with me to help facilitate the tailoring of any new garments I may want. Our training will be 10 weeks long and will be in Bo, Sierra Leone. Most, if not all volunteers I think, will be residing with host families during this time. There are so many things that I still need to do! I still don't have my packing list finalized, I have paperwork to complete still (Insurance for my valuables, Pen-pal programs), vaccines to get, and to top it all off, my laptop monitor quit working so now I have to get it fixed, although I'm hoping I wont have to pay anything since this is a problem other Mac users have had. I need to stop complaining and get to work.

On an unrelated note, I'm very happy to hear that we will be getting bicycles once we are posted to our work sites!

More to come...

Application Timeline

And so it all ends with this enigmatic invitation letter. All the blood (quite literally), urine, 7 months of Tuberculosis medication, additional vaccinations, vision and hearing examinations, dental root canal treatments (still not completed as of yet!), battles with my Peace Corps medical evaluation assistant, my anxieties, doubts, fears, hopes, and expectations, all have lead  inexorably to this letter that many Peace Cops hopefuls never see. I pseudo-expected that I would receive an invitation letter some weeks before it actually came in the mail, but it's cruel how Peace Corps makes you wait, day after agonizing day for it to arrive so that when it finally does, you rip open the 1.5'' paper packet which is not paper at all, but some sort of reinforced cloth material that requires a hacksaw to open and only adds unnecessarily to the pain. I can't really describe the emotions I felt once reading that I'd been selected to serve in Sierra Leone. Sometime in the past, in a feeble attempt to obtain some sort of certainty over where I'd be sent, I narrowed down a list of countries in the continent of Africa where science educators were sent. Needles to say, Sierra Leone was not on that list. So I guess that I was a bit bemused, but excited nonetheless, I was no longer in the dark!

Peace Corps has had a notable presence in Sierra Leone, ever since 1962, when the Peace Corps program first began under the auspices of President John F. Kennedy. The program ended abruptly in 1994 due to steadily rising violence from the ensuing civil war and is just now returning to the country, 15 years later, and about 8 years since the civil war was officially declared over by then president Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who incidentally has the same first name as the friend and war compatriot Ishmael Beah who wrote A Long Way one, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (A must read!) Incidentally, up until then, there were approximately 3,479 Peace Corps volunteers who served in Sierra Leone, ranking it 4th in the number of volunteers who are sent to serve in Africa. I am part of the first cohort of approximately 40 education volunteers to return to Sierra Leone since the commencement of the war and I'm being given a unique opportunity to help plant the seeds of sustainable development.

I have spent the better part of the past month networking with former Returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCV)  in addition to individuals, students and organizations who are or have done work in Sierra Leone. Everyone I've talked to has not only given me great advice, they've also expressed their excitement that Peace Corps is returning to Sierra Leone. I'm scheduled to fly to Washington D.C. on June 2-3 for a two-three day orientation and then I will fly to Sierra Leone for my three month training in Makeni, Sierra Leone, based on the information I've received from Peggy Murrah, a RPCV in Sierra Leone and executive director of Friends of Sierra Leone, and Richard Frazier, another RPCV in Sierra Leone and a current teacher trainer. I have so many things to take care of and loose ends to tie and quite frankly I feel overwhelmed when I think about all the things I've yet to do. 

Below I'm listing a rough time line for those interested in applying to be a Peace Corps volunteer so that they can have an idea of just how long it takes to get past all of the bureaucratic hurdles. Keep in mind however that each individual's time line is highly personal and depends on how motivated one is and, how many health problems one has:

13 November 2008: Preliminary online application submitted.

11 December 2008: One-on-one interview with Peace Corps recruiter, Charles Lucking at Dallas, TX regional office.

4 January 2009: Arrive at Greenburgh Nature Center to begin my position as an environmental educator. I took this position with the hopes that it would give me more environmental education experience for the Peace Corps since environmental education was my first choice, followed by science education.

2 February 2009: Received news form Charles that I was nominated for a science education position in sub-Saharan Africa scheduled to leave on Jan/Feb/Mar (Big range!)

2 February 2009 - 15 July 2009: Voluntarily terminate the application process (In hindsight not a wise move!) only to pick it up again to begin my medical evaluation process.

29 July 2009: I begin my six month Isoniazid (INH) treatment for Tuberculosis. 

18 December 2009: FINALLY receive my medical clearance from the office of medical services.

27 January 2010: Finish my INH treatment.

3 February 2010: Begin root canal treatment (Still unfinished and I've yet to receive my dental clearance).

5 February 2010: Obtain eye examinations for glasses.

10 March 2010: Receive formal invitation letter.

17 March 2010: Formally accept invitation.

2-3 June 2010: Depart for Washington D.C.

Since that day, I've been extremely busy writing additional essays and updated résumés, turning in Sierra Leone visa applications, agonizing over whether to apply for insurance for any valuables I may bring with me, and figuring out to pack. I will post an updated packing list once I have a good idea what I'm bringing!