Volunteer!

Hey friends,

Well, I made it. Last Wednesday I swore an oath to protect the constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic, and officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer. The ceremony was really nice. There were speeches from the mayor of Tonoas, the lieutenant Governor of Chuuk, and the Country Director of Peace Corps Micronesia. All of the new volunteers gave speeches as well, in the local language. I'm sure mine wasn't great, but I think I got my point across.

So as a brand new Peace Corps Volunteer, I'm heading off to my island of service, right? Well, not yet. The plane that flies to the Mortlocks isn't running until the first week of December because the pilot is on vacation. So I'll take the state-run ship, The Milo, right? No, actually The Milo is dry docked in Japan right now for repairs. So I'll take one of the privately owned ships, right? Yes, but they only run when they feel like it, and right now it appears that none of the ships really feel like going anywhere. So... I might be stuck in the lagoon for a while. It could be anywhere from a week to a month. Realistically, I'm not expecting to get out there until after Thanksgiving. Oh well, I can roll with the punches.

So for the next however long, I'm going to be splitting time in Weno and Tonoas. I'm trying to keep myself busy, and actually stumbled into a pretty cool project. I randomly met the president of the Chuuk Women's Council, a few days ago. She needs help writing a grant proposal, so I readily offered to write it. I figure it will not only give me something to do for the next couple of weeks, but will give me an in with a relatively important person. Yay!

Besides that, I plan on playing my guitar a lot, going spear fishing (I'll be sure to write about that), climbing coconut trees, and enjoying the island lifestyle.

All the best,
Ben

P.S. My address will be the same once I go out to Satowan, but you can start addressing the letters to Ben Perdue, Peace Corps Volunteer instead of Ben Perdue, Peace Corps Trainee!