Македониа!

Clickwheel through all the songs ever written about waiting, about the agony of it all, whether it be love, a mircle, or a Peace Corps invitation. I'd stop on Tom Petty, because he was right when he said that the waiting is the hardest part. On May 5th we received an email from the PC, one of those nebulous "Check your status" emails, which sends you sprinting (or walking quickly, by our POS computer's standards) to your PC account to see what all the fuss is about. In the past we've received fabulous news (we're medically cleared) and mundane letdowns ("please update your address and phone number").

This time it was big. We had been invited.
Then that whole hardest part kicked in.

OK, let's imagine you were standing on any random street corner in Washington, D.C., and you were handed a letter, weighing approximately 1 pound. Your instructions are simple: ride your bike to Narragansett, Rhode Island and deliver the letter. How long would it take you? Well, it's 390 miles, so if you could average 35-40 miles each day, you'd be there in about ten or eleven days. But the post office doesn't ride bikes. It uses planes and automobiles. So how could it take two weeks to get the invitation?!?

The Black Hole Formerly Known As Our Mailbox laughed at us daily during those two weeks in that deep, gutteral laugh, like when Jabba the Hut laughed that time and the only word you could understand was "Chewbaca." Swap out Chewey for "The next two and half years of your life," you can begin to grasp our hatred of that little box. Nothing but the Weekly Shopper and bills.

Then it came, a big lump of a package on a rainy day. So anxious had we become, so fed up with the whole mailbox scene, that when my Jillian saw it sitting there, next to the mailbox, all she could muster was, "Finally."

And then we proceeded to rip it open. Inside we found...

Macedonia!

Now the details, of course:

Who- That's easy. Dan & Jillian

What- Secondary (Dan) & Primary (Jillian) English Language Resource Teachers. Basically, we will work in a school setting and collaborate with English teachers to improve language programs. That includes team teaching, lesson planning and implementation, curriculum development, teacher training, extracurricular program development, and...teaching English.

Where- Република Македониа. Our 3 month language, culture, and job training will be in a central location within Macedonia, probably just outside the capital. During this time, we will stay with a host family and be close to approximately 4 or 5 other volunteers who will be in our training group. After the training period, we will disperse to our sites and begin our service. The permanent site will be determined during training and we will live on our own in a small apartment or house depending on the location.

When- We depart on Sept. 20, 2007 and our service will end Dec. 13, 2009.

Why- A better question is why not!?!

Tom Petty also sang about heading off into the Great Wide Open and right about now that tune seems a lot more appropriate.