Halo Amerika!

I'm alive and well! Unfortunately I forgot my laptop where I had my super long blog post ready but we came to the main city for the day so we could get some things done and buy a bush knife (bus naef). So this is just a small update but I'm here and it's the most beautiful place ever! Everyone got cell phones but I walked into the ocean with mine and well it hasn't turned on since so I'm going to have to buy a new one! Be prepared for a much more in depth blog post later but I'm alvie and well so do not worry folks, ta ta lukim yu!

LA Update!

Hello everyone! A lot of you have been asking for an update so I just couldn't resist! I'll tell you about my day..We woke up at about 6:30 and my sister Danielle and brother in law Roger came over so we can stop over at IHOP before my departure. Got the strawberry banana pancakes (is that detailed enough for ya?) and we went to the airport, which was an extremely heart wrenching time. Dani got me a new hat which I've been wearing all day (it says NY) and I had to say good bye to my family. I was walking down the lonely corridor and realized that I was really on my own for the first time - I have to do everything myself and so far it's a liberating feeling.

Here's a quick little run down of how my travels went:

These were my bags before I had to put the camping backpack into another larger suitcase to balance the weight out!

Newark Airport

Chicago Airport

My super heavy bags which I have to lug around myself!

LAX

Filling out some forms..

New buds 

More new people..

Our hotel for the night

Our cool sign

Walkin to dinner

So basically tonight I took the wrong shuttle and just did a little lap around LAX before getting off and taking the correct shuttle to our hotel. Tonight was the first time we were all meeting each other which was really fun yet difficult to remember everyone's names and where they're from but one IT educator is from Ramsey NJ!! How crazy is that?? Small world, after we handed in all of our paper work we were given $120 for the time between tonight and tomorrow so that's pretty cool. It's only 9:32PM here in LA but it's 12:31AM back home which is what I'm used to so I'm pretty sure I'm going to go to bed now.. Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm alive and well and made it to LA, 2 flights down, 2 more to go.

Tomorrow is Staging where It's just hours of meetings and what not. Then tomorrow night we're leaving for New Zealand which is a 13 hour flight and then a 3 1/2 hour flight but is OK because it's with all of my new friends I'm looking forward to get to knowing. I really miss everyone back home so much but looking forward to making new friends here, take care everyone and feel free to write comments on my posts and stuff, in fact, I encourage it. Alright good night guys I'm not sure when I'm going to have Internet again but I'll post as soon as I do and my phone is probably going to be deactivated after tonight so no more phone number! Message me on Facebook or send me emails to stay in touch.

 Lukim yu!

Little Introduction

Hey all my name's Richard Gornall, thanks for checking out my blog whether your my friends, family or strangers looking to learn more about the Peace Corps specifically in Vanuatu. I've always had a little thirst for adventure and I believe I found it here in the Peace Corps. The reason I'm making this blog is not only to let my loved ones know of my arduous travels but show what it's like to have a first hand experience of the Peace Corps. When first learning about the PC I immediately read a few blogs which really provided first hand experience of what it's like which had a serious influence on my decision of joining. First off I'll tell you a little about the Peace Corps because I can't tell you how many questions I've had about it so hopefully these will answer some of yours too!

(Most of this taken from Wikipedia)
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the US Government. The Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the US to understand US culture, and helping Americans to understand the cultures of other countries. Typically volunteers are people with a college degree or who have worked years in a particular field. Volunteers usually work within the following categories: governments, schools, non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, and entrepreneurs in education, hunger, business, information technology, agriculture and the environment. A full term of service is two years or 24 months, not including a 3 month Pre-Service Training (PST).

The Peace Corps has a pretty competitive application process and is something that takes some serious time and consideration to apply and be accepted to. The whole application process took about a year and I applied before I started my senior year of college. You can have a geographic preference but it really doesn't matter, the PC sends you wherever they need you so it's something you definitely have to be open minded about. I hope this blog can give you some insight and maybe even inspire some lucky individuals to become a part of the Peace Corps one day! If anyone wants to email me with any questions or just chat feel free to email me anytime skirjames@hotmail.com.

In about a week I'm leaving for Los Angeles to meet up with my group for a day of staging and then it's off for the 3 month PST that's in country - specifically in Port Vila, Vanuatu where we will all be living with host families learning about cultural, technical training and language (which is Bislama by the way, a pigeon English). After that they decide where best to send us and we are sent off to one of the islands where we are needed most.

I realize that I didn't talk too much about Vanuatu so here's a little info about it. It's a string of about 83 islands where around 60 are inhabited. The whole islands only have about 200,000 thousand people. It's located in the South Pacific 1,000 miles east of Australia and just west of Fiji. It was first inhabited by Melanesian people and later colonized by both the British and French so both English and French are spoken throughout the islands. Luckily cannibalism was last recorded in 1969 so no worries there! It's really a beautiful place which I can't wait to set foot on with their active volcanoes, underwater paradises, incredible beaches and villages bursting with culture that I'm completely alien to.

I hope that was a good enough introduction and yes I'm very nervous/scared/excited/psyched about going and I will most certainly miss my good friends/family, my wonderful parents and my amazing sister to name a few. This is something that I think will be a great experience not only for everyone I get to share my knowledge with but for myself as well and I'm truly looking forward to helping, living, and learning!