Jet Airliner

    At 11:15AM we depart on South African Airways for out 16 hour journey direct to Johannesburg. Last time I flew this airline they announced as we were departing "Do not embarrassed yourself by asking to fly business class during the flight." This Peace Corps thing is starting to get very real!

    

In Philly!

    I finished packing at 3am the night before staging (thanks Aunt Donna and Uncle Bob for letting me destroy your house). My bags are way over the Peace Corps 40 pounds limit for each bag. South African Airways has a limit of 45-ish for each bag so I hope it works out. I have a mental list of what I can toss out at the airport to get under the weight limit. First would be the very large bottles of Fluoride mouth wash (I would just prey I can find it there). 

    Staging is taking place at the Holiday Inn Historic District in downtown Philadelphia. I arrived yesterday with my Mom and Hunter. We had a monumental 23 mile drive! All the volunteers and staff are exceptionally friendly and outgoing. I could not be more excited to be here!

    

    This morning we walked to federal office for our Yellow Fever vaccinations. After the shot it began to downpour so a few of us took refuge in a court room that we assumed with filled with registered sex offenders but turned out to be jury selection. 

    Tonight I say goodbye to my Mother (who none of this would be possible without). I will take her to dinner with my ridiculously large allowance from the Peace Corps :)

Wikipedia

With less than two weeks before departure I am desperately trying to gather educational resources for my service as an education and community recourse specialist. We are only allowed 80lbs so this makes bringing books impractical. I have found some interesting ways of utilizing Wikipedia to develop education resources for use when internet is not available. You can create a book of specific wiki pages and download the book as a pdf. here is an instructional video.

 Wikipedia Book Generator YouTube Video

I am working on creating these Wikipedia books for biology, chemistry, physics, HIV/AIDS and South Africa (history, culture, politics). If I have access to a power source for my laptop I should be able to refer to these books to help with lesson development. 

Example of Wikipedia Book for South Africa

Wikipedia can also be downloaded in its entirety on to your hard drive! I am still debating if this is a good idea. This would be a great resource to have but would take a very long time and might clog up my computer. The problem is that you cant just download all of the science or math portions, you must download everything. There is so much junk (anything with Justin Bieber as an example)

iTunes has many free resources for an educator. Its called iTunes U. Numerous educational institutions post complete course lectures in podcast and video formats. 

I might just be going crazy with all of this! I'm sure I will have access to various educational resources (and possibly internet) but doing this makes me feel better :)

Invited to Serve!

After 13 months in the application process I finally received my invitation. I will serve as a school and community resource specialist departing July 12th. Staging will be in DC Philadelphia (30 miles from where I live). The hardest part of accepting this invitation is parting with my friends and family.  I am going to make the most of the next 6 weeks before my departure!

• Read as much about Africa and teaching as possible
• Make one last Magic Kingdom trip
• Possibly have a Lion King themed party
• Get my packing list together 
• Attend my nephews preschool graduation
• Eat McDonald's at least once a day!