Madagascar!

Today I accepted my invitation to join the Peace Corps and I'll be moving to Madagascar this February!!

Right now it's all kind of surreal, as I look through my few remaining possessions and decide which will come with me and which to leave behind. What all will fit in my 80 pound limit, I wonder...

Two years in Africa on an island in the Indian Ocean! I feel as if I'm living in a dream. There's such a mystique about Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, home to tens of thousands of plant and animal species not found anywhere else on the planet. I'm lucky enough to be going there to work in the Environmental Program. The island is in danger from harmful deforestation practices. It's an ecological wonderland, and soon it will be my new home. I'm in love with the island already, and I haven't even set foot on its soil.

This is what wikipedia has to say about Madagascar.

You can call me an idealist. It's true, I'm an idealist. I am literally going to Africa to plant trees with the Peace Corps. It doesn't get much more idealistic than that.

I think about what I'm leaving behind in California, and I wonder where this two years will lead me. No doubt the experience I have in Africa will shape who I am and where I will go from there.

But one step at a time. First I start my three months of training in the capital.
Here's an address where you can send me letters until April:

Helen Graham, PCT Peace Corps
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 12091
Poste Zoom Ankorondrano
101 Antananarivo
Madagascar

Now I'm in the process of making final flight arrangements, visiting family and friends, selling my car, and figuring out my finances here in the states.
I leave California on February 17th, and I fly to Madagascar on February 20th.

And this weekend is New Year's Eve at the Sea of Dreams. It's a great time to celebrate! New Year's Eve is one of my favorite nights of the year. There's the anticipation about what the year ahead will bring. You can feel the excitement in the air! This year I have a lot to look forward to, and I'm ready to party like it's 2007!