After meeting Kate for the first time in-person for lunch on Thursday afternoon, I got a text from her while I was stuck in traffic on my way home from work. It said something along the lines of “My invitation is sitting on my kitchen table!” EEEE! The moment we had been waiting for since our invitations were mailed out the previous Friday. I got home and opened the mailbox and saw it inside and pulled hard to get it out of there and brought it in the house and ripped it open and saw Nicaragua in bold. I screamed. YES!
I sent a text to Kate: “Got it!” I sent a text to my mom. I called my sister and danced around the kitchen table for a while. My dad came home. I couldn’t believe how happy he was for me. We went out to celebrate.
Got a phone call from Kate: She’s going to Nicaragua too! Awesome!
Then it was my birthday weekend. Thanks for remembering, Peace Corps. This really was the best birthday present ever.
I feel incredibly lucky to be part of Peace Corps/ Nicaragua. I would love to connect with anyone else leaving for Nicaragua in January, and any current volunteers that want to share any advice/ stories/ packing tips.
This weekend I am going to tackle my aspiration statement, updated resume, and passport paperwork.
From now until Thanksgiving I am going to tackle not mentioning the Peace Corps or Nicaragua at work. It’s going to be harder than it sounds.
Good luck to everyone else waiting on those invitations. It’ll happen!
how it feels to finally open your invitation
Under My Skin 
Yaaa girl!
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Thanks for your blog, Lauren; it gives me hope! I’m an applicant as well (potentially going to Nicaragua in January), and waiting is driving me nuts! My invitation is in the mail, so I should know in the near future. Good luck! –Anna
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So exciting! Let me know where you end up!
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hi lauren,
so sorry i didn’t e-mail you before, internet is somewhat scarce here…first off congrats! i know you wanted to know about peace corps, but i am sure nicaragua is going to be completely different, but if it is similar you are going to have a blast, i love my fellow volunteers so much!!! they make all the sweating and frustrations and falling off transportation completely worth it! yeah am right now working on a project to introduce rocket stoves via establishing a tea room in the nearby town, rocket stoves use 70% less firewood, trying to get on that small issue of deforestation, which is probably a problem in nicaragua, so if you ever want to do some stove projects there we could def. chat and collaborate doing cross country peace corps work! anyways yeah, feel free to e-mail me if you have other questions, i don’t know if packing would be similar but would be happy to e-mail you my list. congrats again!
rock that peace and change!
jo
jo.margaret.murphy@gmail.com
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