Peace Corps Nomination Party

Yours Truly

Me and the Parental Units after the Peace Corps "Nomination Party"

Hey,

Today, my parents and I attended the annual Peace Corps "Nomination Party" hosted by the Chicago recruiting office, which was held at the Mexican Fine Arts Museum. The first part of the meeting included a question and answer section, where audience members (full of interested people, family members of currently serving volunteers, invitees who have already received their assignments, and those in the application process) asked questions of a former volunteer, her parents and another couple who's three children served. Very interesting.

Next, family members in the audience were asked to go to the front of the room and introduce themselves, as well as talk about their family members' assignments. I thought that my mother would be eating up their words, because she had her little pen and paper out to take notes. Well, I was kinda wrong, because instead of taking notes, she was doodling like a high schooler in 5th period American History class. Over dinner, I realized that she was actually paying attention, or at least she remembered enough to pretend like she was listening.

Once the parents were finished, and were handed a Peace Corps coffee mug, everyone in the audience who has received an invitation to serve, a project, and leave date, were asked to go to the front of the room and say: their name, program title, and departure date. There was one lady who called herself "older", one other African American female going some where in Eastern Europe, a bunch of seemingly recent college graduates, and an older married couple. Instead of getting cool coffee mugs (even though I don't drink coffee and prefer sweet iced tea...which is served in a nice tall glass), we were given a Peace Corps key chain and luggage tag. When I took my seat, I told my dad that I was happy I got the luggage tag, because that was $4.00 that I didn't have to spend...is Peace Corps making me cheap?

The president of the Chicago Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group spoke about her respective organization, and informed all of the invitees that the group awards grants for volunteer projects. I'll make sure to keep her number!

Finally, after the event was over with, I ran into one of the family members who stood up with the first group. She was a really nice African American lady whose 70 year old aunt is serving in the Peace Corps in a country close to South Africa. It was great talking to her, and look forward to connecting with the aunt while I'm serving...see, I'm already starting to make connections.

I'll keep you posted as more things occur...I guess this is a nice way to say I'm tired and sick of typing...so I'm going to practice looking at the back of my eyelids. Until next time!!!!