A Little Language Here, A Little Anxiety There...

Tena Yistilim!

Hope everyone is having a splendiferous day, because I know I sure did. Every day is so much fun and yet so challenging, and its still hasn't even been a full week yet! At any rate, tonight is my last night in Addis Ababa with guaranteed internet, so I wanted to post before heading out to the countryside tomorrow. Tomorrow our Community Based Training begins, which means I will be moving in with a host family in one of three towns west of Addis Ababa. From what I've heard from current volunteers, this will mark the beginning of ten long weeks of little privacy, GI tract issues, an even more ridiculous schedule, and more love and curiosity from my new family than I can possibly handle! As a result, my blogs might be few and far between.

In the past two days since my last blog post, a lot has happened. I learned a lot about the Conservation program here and what I can expect to be doing. I talked to many current volunteers and had many, many questions answered about what we can expect while serving in our country. We had our first Amharic language lesson today, and let me tell you it wasn't easy. We wrapped up today with a tour of the city of Addis Ababa and visited several museums, learning a little about the history and culture of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is so much more than the famines and drought many people think it to be, and it saddens me that you can't see the Ethiopia I'm just beginning to glimpse. It is actually the most stable and fastest growing country in East Africa. All around it there are issues, with the failed state of Somalia to the East, the border disputes with Eritrea to the North, and the problems with Sudan to the west, but I feel incredibly safe here with both Peace Corps and the country watching out for me.

Everything is going incredibly fast though, and it finally hit me yesterday how tough this journey is going to be. Throughout my entire preparation and application process, this job seemed like something far away. Something easy I could handle without a problem. I'd been to Africa before, so how hard could this be? Well these first few days have already shown me how woefully unprepared I am. I am officially the youngest of my training class, and even though I thought I was a pretty cool dude, the people in my training class are even more amazing. Everyone here has traveled a lot, several have done Peace Corps before, many of them have had serious jobs already, and one person even hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (from Mexico to Canada along the West Coast) in 4 months! When I think about the responsibility I have to my country, to the people in my community here in Ethiopia, and the incredible amount of work I have ahead of me, I am terrified. Through a combination of dawning realization and malarial medication side effects (which can cause anxiety and vivid dreams, both of which I might have experienced yesterday), for the first time ever I seriously began to question if this was something I could do.

Thankfully, the side effects wore off, I got a good night of sleep, and the great friends I've already made here are supportive and understanding beyond belief. I felt better than ever this morning, and, though I know it will be a long and incredibly difficult journey, I am so excited and ready to tackle what tomorrow will bring. I will experience hardship, laughs, pain, love, sickness, and unspeakable joy, and I know that all of this will help me grow from a clueless kid stumbling around blindly in this crazy thing called life into a confident young man who can save the world. And one day, I will.

Love and miss ya'll!
Biggie

P.S. Hopefully, I will be uploading pics soon. Look for them on Facebook.