Summer Lovin'

 Fantastic news last week, not for me, but for my wonderful and amazing boyfriend.

HE'S BEEN INVITED TO FIJI!

Yep, my boyfriend is also applying to the Peace Corps. We'll be living thousands of miles away for over two years. (Even longer now that my departure date has been delayed) Because we're not a married couple, we can't serve together and will most likely be living on opposite sides of the globe. Its going to be incredibly difficult, we knew this going in. The statistics of maintaining a state-side relationship are grim. Lots of relationships fall apart and lots of PCV's start relationships with each other, but I've never heard of two Peace Corps Volunteers being together while serving in separate countries. Ours is a unique case, since we're both volunteering, neither of us will be left behind living a disproportionately different life in the US. Communicating regularly might be difficult with unreliable or nonexistent internet or phone service. We may only get to visit each other once or twice a year, if that, but we've committed both to each and to the peace corps and are prepared to get these wild adventures started!

The application process is different for everyone and I'm lucky enough to be able to look in on his as well as mine. I feel like I'm almost going with him because I get to read all the extra info they send him! He applied in October (1 month after me), interviewed in December, was nominated in January, legally and pre-medically cleared in February and invited at the end of April. He leaves for staging on September 3rd and leaves for Fiji September 5th. He will be working as a community health empowerment facilitator teaching and reducing the presence of non-communicable disease.

We met while both volunteering for the International Alliance for the Prevention of AIDS last year in Chennai, India and have been together ever since. I have four more months with him before he embarks on his peace corps adventure. I will miss him terribly!  At least I get to visit him in FIJI!

Don't be deceived by those smiles. 24 hours after this pic was taken we were both violently hit with food poisoning.  That sugarcane juice is the culprit.