First of all the blog title. We were trying to think up a catchy name and one night I dreamed of one. It comes from the introduction of Andy Rooney at the end of 60 Minutes. Or at least that's where I think it comes from. And "Garideth" is a combination of our names Gary and Merideth. (Thanks Matt Dunkle)
Our interest in the Peace Corps (PC) started a few years ago when Merideth was reading online about the Peace Corps because our younger son Devon was interested in joining. She discovered that the PC wants volunteers who have undergraduate degrees and Devon had not finished college. She did read that the PC had no age limit and couples could serve. This started us thinking. Merideth had retired from teaching in 2009 and I was planning to retire at the end of 2010. We had talked in retirement about doing some type of volunteer work overseas so the Peace Corps seemed perfect.
We applied in January 2010 and had a phone interview with a Seattle PC recruiter who nominated us indicating we'd most likely be serving in sub-Sahara Africa. Next came a couple of months of compiling our medical information which we submitted in late May. Since we were not going to be available to leave until February 2011 at the earliest, the PC postponed any further medical review until November when they informed us we were medically cleared.
When the new year arrived we grew anxious about not hearing something from the PC in the way of an invitation. We tried to be patient and avoid calling every week to ask about our status. Finally, when we were visiting Florida in late February, the PC called with some final interview questions eventually telling us to expect an invitation package in the mail when we returned home to Idaho. On March 3rd, we got the invitation package indicating South Africa was our destination. We were pleased and accepted the invitation. We are scheduled to leave Idaho July 5th.
We will spend a couple days in Washington DC and then fly to Johannesburg where we will travel to a training area for eight weeks. When we get done with training, we then will move to our permanent site where we will live and work for the remainder. We are both going to work in some type of educational program. More details on our jobs will be provided when available.
Since March we have been working to arrange our affairs in anticipation of 27 months somewhere in South Africa. We have made arrangements for our house and all the other things that need our presence. With auto deposit and auto pay, we can make certain all of our bills keep paid. In the meanwhile Merideth and I have been staying active by taking regular exercise classes and working through a to-do checklist that seems to never end.
This week our son Rowan from Boulder CO and son Devon from Missoula MT are visiting. They have both been 100% behind our decision and plan to come visit us during our time in South Africa. They are both at such good points in their lives that we as parents feel very comfortable going to Africa. Thanks guys.
During last several months Merideth and I have been telling people that we'd be sending them an email containing a link to a journal that will allow them to follow us in South Africa. So this is it. We will try to update our journal before we leave on July 5th and then whenever we get the chance in Africa. We are both very excited about this opportunity and have received positive support and encouragement from every person we have told of our plans.
The only creature that does not want us to go is our cat Zoe pictured with us below. Anyone want a nice cat?
And that's the way it is (thanks Walter Cronkite).
