The Beginning

Well, it’s official. After nearly a year and a half of applications, interviews, medical exams, paperwork, and needlessly bloody wisdom tooth extractions, we’ve finally made it through (most of) the red tape and have accepted an invitation to head to Tanzania for 27 months. We leave on June 14.

Details on this whole thing are fuzzy, but it seems that we’ll start off near Dar es Salaam (the pseudo-capital) for two months of training. There, we’ll live with host families and learn how to speak Swahili and take bucket showers. We’ll also find out where our placement site will be, which will more than likely be in a small village without electricity or running water.

Once at our placement site, Michelle will be working in health education, and I’ll be working on various environmental and agricultural projects. Since our specific tasks and projects are subject to great variation, I won’t speculate here as to what exactly we’ll be doing. We’ll post details on all that once things become more concrete.

We hope to be able to post updates, however brief, every month or two as time and internet access allow. The next post should be from Tanzania. Until then, we’ll be in Ann Arbor until May 29, in Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids from May 30 to June 6ish, and in New Jersey from then until we leave on June 14. We’re trying to see everyone before we go, so give us a call if you want to hang out.

Our new address will be:

Justin and Michelle Heslinga
US Peace Corps
P.O. Box 9123
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania