Welcome

Welcome to my blog where I will write about my upcoming Peace Corps experience. With time, this will provide some insight into my experience and adventures. In addition, I will eventually be posting photos in my online photo album. But please be patient, as my internet access will be limited. Chances are I will not truly begin to use this blog until September or later.

This blog can always be accessed by going to peacecorps.nathanntg.com .

As the Peace Corps requirements state, I must include a disclaimer on the site: The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.

Now that's out of the way... just to go over some basics about what is coming up: In just a week, I will be leaving for Philadelphia for my initial staging, where there is intensive overview training and vaccinations. From there, all 90 volunteers who are going to South Africa will be bussed to JFK. The first flight (both flights are on Air Lufthansa) will leave Thursday night and arrive in Frankfurt on Friday morning. Thanks to some discussion among incoming volunteers, a number of us are going to try to visit the city if feasible (since we have a twelve hour layover). On Friday night, we then fly on to Johannesburg, South Africa arriving at 8am on Saturday, July 20th (probably all quite exhausted at that point).

By Monday morning, we all embark on the eight week training session - seven weeks of which will be spent with a host family, but there is an initial week for adjustment.

Following training, I will be working for two years as an "NGO capacity builder". From what I understand, that means I will be placed with an NGO which does AIDS/HIV work (which could be anything from education to health care). As time goes on, the goal is to try to contribute and make the organization more effective. Given a little time, I will soon have a better feel for exactly what I am doing...