Finally Submitting that Peace Corps Application

[art_house_queen]

Hello all! This is a kinda long entry, so I bolded all the important stuff ;)

I have been a member of this community since 2004 (albeit with a different lj name), commenting in the begining, and then becoming more of a lurker as I put my PC goals aside to finish school and start a sort-of career. I completed my first application during that time,

Comments

[namibiacoco]

I left Namibia Dec of 2007...and on the day I left they got high speed internet in my town! If you are willing to pay for the access lots of people skype....that said it totally depends where you are. Depending on what city/town/village you end up in could completely change the options you have....while I had a cell phone and talked to my family relatively regularly and was able to email (the old fashion way...a phone line which I could only afford to use long enough to upload and download email not to surf the web) I had a friend in another country that didn't have access to phone/internet even regular mail! Peace corps drove her mail to her once a month...that sucked....but I wills say a LOT of volunteers have internet on their phones now so communication is not nearly as difficult in many parts of the world as it used to be.

As for family it is hard but you need to do what you need to do :)

[art_house_queen]

Thank you!!

[west_nile_virus]

Communication outlets vary throughout the world, but I will say this: cellphones are everywhere. They've really taken off. In many places where people still don't have computers at home, or electricity, cellphones fill in the gap. I definitely know that Kenyans, for instance, rely heavily on cellphones to do their online banking, email, web-surfing, etc.

I suppose you could also record audio messages and that would require less supplies?

Good luck, I'm sure you'll find a way. =]

[art_house_queen]

Thank you!!

[pc_chica]

I had a kind of similar story to yours. My family was very supportive, however, I have always had wanderlust and started traveling a lot in high school. Other people saw my travels in the same way as you described, and I often second guessed my travels as well. But, almost 3 years post-PC and having just graduated grad school and landed a real job, rest assured your experiences will give you tremendous experience.

The video idea sounds really cool, but I agree with the other 2 posters that it really depends on your site. It may be a pain to upload videos on very slow connections. Also, I'd be careful about letting people on about your equipment at first. It might send off the wrong impression that you have lots of money. After you get comfortable in your community, you can take it out. I know that the kids in my site enjoyed making videos on my digital camera.

Hope that helps. Good luck!!

[art_house_queen]

Thank you!!