September 4, 2009

Kate's Departure

This week Kate got her final paperwork from the Peace Corps. It was exciting and overwhelming at the same time! She will be leaving home on October 22nd, heading for Washington D.C. for two days, and then flying to The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan!

Once in Jordan she will be attending language classes for three months along with other new Peace Corps volunteers. She will live with a local family which will help her learn Arabic and acclimate to the culture. After she completes her training, she will be sent to a rural or semi-rural area to help teach at a day-care/school or residential setting for children with physical or developmental disabilities. She will remain in Jordan for a total of 27 months!

Kate will need a new wardrobe, since women in Jordan keep themselves covered with loose fitting clothes from their neck to wrists to ankles. Form fitting clothes are not acceptable there, and she will wear a head-covering (not a burkha, but a hijab or scarf). This will be an interesting transition for Kate I think, since she is somewhat into fashion.

We are proud of Kate, starting out in the world, working to make life better for children who need help! This is a HUGE adventure, with the real possibility of having limited communication (what young American adult can imagine not having internet or a cell phone???), and limited news from the rest of the world. We might even have to resort to old fashioned letter writing!

We'll (she'll) have a busy seven weeks to prepare and pack...she'll need winter clothes (yes, it gets cold there), a new laptop (power source? Unknown), and oh, I can't even think it through!


8 comments:

Stephanie said...

I have a few friends who run their laptops with little solar chargers. Let me know if you would like me to get the info on those for you. :)

Way to go Kate! Wish I would have done something like that when I was your age. :)

Steph and Christopher

Anonymous said...

Sending all our well wishes for Kate's new journey!

Anonymous said...

My mother joined the Peace Corps right after I graduated from high school! She went to Thailand. She just had a 29 year reunion with friends this spring. She has been back once to teach English at a university.
I will forever be grateful because now we know about mangos and sticky rice ;-)
I wish your daughter well.

holly s said...

Good luck, Katie!

It sounds like such an adventure.

And wearing flowing pajama things sound pretty good right now.

The Scheppegrells

Anonymous said...

Wow. How exciting for her. Good luck. Jan

Natalie said...

What an incredible journey for an incredible girl!

Crittle said...

That is AMAZING! Best to Kate!

I considered the PC once, but I was so intimidated by the application that I never got past the info session. Boo on me, right?!

TheThingsIdTellYou said...

You have clearly raised an incredible young woman.