"We Don't Know"

For weeks, when we tell friends and family we're going to the Peace Corps we've been besieged by questions. "What town will you be in?" "Where will you live?" "What will you do?" The answer to all of them has been pretty much the same: We don't know.

(Most of what we know is that our bags have to be less than 107 inches in total height, width, and length, and less than 80 pounds. Sally is having trouble imagining how to live for two years with less than 80 pound of stuff, but it's David who's more overweight at the moment.)

But pretty soon we're going to begin finding out. This Wednesday, July 22, we fly to Washington for "staging," our introduction to the Peace Corps and the other members of the group we'll train and work with in South Africa. Thursday we take off from Dulles for Johannesburg.

Where do we go next? We don't know.

But we do know we'll be in training for 10 weeks or so as a group. We don't know where. We do know it's referred to as "lockdown" for its intensity. (We don't know what Internet access will be like, so you may not hear much from us.) Part of the training involves living with a family. And when it's over, we'll finally have some answers.