Hello, and welcome to our blog

Hi! It's Tyan

Ken (hubby) and I applied to the Peace Corps a little over two months ago. The process thus far has moved pretty quickly, and hasn't tested our patience too much yet. Though I hear it gets horrible later. We had our interview three weeks ago, and are now waiting for the secondary "phone" interview. If all goes well, the phone interview should end with our recruiter forwarding our applications to Washington DC. As a couple, the application process is a little different as Washington handles most of it, in contrast to single applicants who are mostly handled by their recruiter. At our interview, Erin (our recruiter) said that we should expect to leave sometime next late spring/summer (May-September 2010). Based on our qualifications we are most likely going to get sent somewhere in Africa or the Pacific Islands. Ken's focus is Agriculture, and mine will either be Health Education or Special Education.

Ken and I had told a few people about applying to the Peace Corps, but had not announced it to the majority of our families. At our joint graduation party, we announced it to the family. Most people weren't thrilled. I wasn't horribly surprised, but was still saddening. The most common response was, "Why would you want to do that?", or "Why would you want to go there?". I think my Aunt Annah was the only person who didn't already know to be excited by our announcement. I think a lot of people assumed I was pregnant, and announcing that. I did gain a little weight this term (stress), and I could see how people could think it was pregnancy chub, not just LLD-stress-nearly-killed-me chub. I think that the family will think more favorably on our decision as time passes. I know it will be hard (and will be hard for me!), but this will be a great experience.

To sum it all up - we are waiting to hear if our application is being forwarded to DC, we should leave next summer, and everyone knows (even if they aren't that happy about it).