Update: Our Quasi Job Assignments

Good evening friends,

Just last Friday, we received our Peace Corps Invitation Packet, which, in addition to a plethora of information regarding our finances, passports, and insurance (aka. boring stuff), included our job assignments! However, what we know is still very vague since our true job assignments are dependent on where we are placed, and that will not be determined until training begins in July. Either way, without further ado...

Joye is placed in the "Education" program as a "Youth Development Agent," where she will work in a non-formal capacity to teach and promote everything from literacy (in French), leadership skills (especially for girls), to possibly health and sanitation practices.

On the other hand, I am placed in the "Environment" program as a "Natural Resources Extension Agent," where I will work will local communities to improve agricultural production areas through the promotion of fertilizer, improved seed varieties, and the like. All I can say is that training better be exceptional because my farming experience can be summed by that time I killed a cactus because I didn't water it enough. :)

Last update concerns our Facebook Event "Jim and Joye's Peace Corps Book List," which really isn't an event at all, but a way for us to collect people's favorite books to add to our Peace Corps reading agenda. In general, we enjoy classic fiction, fast-paced fiction, francophone lit, books about/in Africa, or narrative non-fiction. So, if you have a Facebook account, please check it out, and if not, please place your suggestion in the "Comments" section. About 2 weeks before we go, we'll post the "winners" on this blog.

Thanks for reading! Look forward to more exciting posts as our July departure approaches!

-James

Update: It's Official!

No, Joye is not pregnant. Sorry baby-crazed relatives.

What is official is that we have been invited to serve in the US Peace Corps! We will be leaving in early July and heading over to Mali.

For those of you who think that Mali is a tropical island in the Pacific, think again (that's Maui). Rather, this Francophone landlocked country resides in West Africa.

For more information, check out this link to the CIA World Factbook:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ml.html

Stay tuned for more information about Mali, and how this whole adventure is coming together.

-James