14 days to go

Two weeks from today, I will have arrived in Washington D.C and meeting the other Peace Corps trainees leaving for Macedonia on Saturday, Sept 12.

Though I have been randomly putting clothes in a suitcase, today I started packing in earnest. What to take for two years to a place that has really hot summers and cold winters? It is hard to look at warm clothes let alone touch them when the weather here is hotter than usual. Daily temperatures fluctuate between a nice 60's at night to hot 80's during the days. In centigrade that is "nice 17's to hot 29's". I am going to have to get used to understanding the temperature in centigrade and for now will memorize the range - anything over 30's is very hot and below 15 cold.

My clothes are laundered and folded and placed on the bed waiting to go into 2 suitcases - one small 27x18x8 and one large 30x21x10! I will take my Spain hiking trip backpack as a carryon and a small school back pack for my computer and electronic gadgets! From the material the staff at Macedonia sent, I still need to buy a flash drive to tote data around as the internet is widespread and accessible, with lots of internet cafes. In order to focus on what I am going there for I gave up my iphone on Wednesday! I am planning to get a regular mobile phone instead of a smartphone, with voice and text (I dont want to give up text!). This blog will be my connection to all of you.

I also learned that I am among the 10% of volunteers over the age of 50. The volunteers are evenly divided between community service and education. I will be engaged in NGO (non governmental organization) development. Beyond knowing that I will be training in a location near the town of Kumanovo, northern border of Macedonia, I am glad I know nothing of the actual assignment. This was I don't build up any expectations of what I will be doing or not doing. The plan is to keep an open mind and just take each day - one day at a time.

Meanwhile, back to the task at hand - actually packing and not writing about it